The Romance of a Pro-Consul: Being the Personal Life and Memoirs of the Right Hon. Sir George Grey, K.C.B.Milne, James
History
The Romance of a Pro-Consul: Being the Personal Life and Memoirs of the Right Hon. Sir George Grey, K.C.B.
Milne, James
Grey, George, Sir, 1812-1898
Then Tutanekai threw on some clothes and caught hold of his club, and
away he went and came to the bath and called out 'Where's that fellow who
broke my calabashes?'
And Hine-Moa knew the voice, that the sound of it was that of the beloved
of her heart; and she hid herself under the overhanging rocks of the hot
spring. But her hiding was hardly a real hiding; rather a bashful
concealing of herself from Tutanekai that he might not find her at once,
only after trouble and careful search for her.
So he went feeling about, along the banks of the hot spring, searching
everywhere, whilst she lay coyly hid under the ledges of the rocks,
peeping out, wondering when she should be found.
At last he caught hold of a hand and cried out, 'Hullo, who's this?'
And Hine-Moa answered: 'It's I, Tutanekai.'
And he said: 'But who are you? Who's I?' Then she spoke louder, and
said: 'It's I, 'tis Hine-Moa.'
And he said: 'Ho! ho! ho! Can such in very truth be the case? Let us two,
then, go to my house.'
And she answered 'Yes.'
And she rose up in the water as beautiful as the wild white hawk, and
stepped upon the edge of the bath as graceful as the shy white crane. And
he threw garments over her, and took her, and they proceeded to his house
and reposed there, and thenceforth, according to the ancient laws of the
Maoris, they were man and wife.
XVIII A FATHER OF FEDERATION
Mr Gladstone and Sir George Grey ploughed different seas, under charter
from the English-speaking race. One flew his pennant in the nearer
waters, the other in the farther. Now and then they met, but briefly, as
ships do which pass in the night.
'What I saw of Mr. Gladstone,' said Sir George, 'was mostly at official
gatherings, or gatherings arising out of official life. One session,
however, during which I was in England, we dined almost every Wednesday
evening at the same London house.
'Mr. Gladstone was always a most charming personality, and I recall his
friendliness in walking up with me to the hall of ceremonies, when I
received the honorary degree at Cambridge. He also was to have the honour
conferred upon him that day, and it was considerate on his part to convoy
me along, as I knew few people at Cambridge, the result of absence from
England.
'As to public affairs, I suspect that he and I held widely different
views, at all events on some subjects. Like everybody else, I recognised
in him a commanding figure, but I am bound to say that his greatness
seemed to me to lie in carrying out ideas, after they had been suggested
by others, rather than in working them out himself.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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