Mr. Massinger had indeed heard of it. Had read blue-books, correspondence, letters, articles, and reviews, in which the New Zealand Land Company was alternately represented as a providential agency for saving the finest country in the world for British occupation, for finding homes on smiling farms for the crowded population of Great Britain, for Christianizing the natives as well as instructing them in the arts of peace; or, as a syndicate of greedy monopolists, insidiously working for the accumulation of vast estates, and oppressing a noble and interesting race, whose lands they proposed to confiscate under a miserable pretence of sale and barter. "I _have_ heard and read a good deal of the proceedings of the New Zealand Land Company; but accounts differ, so that they are perplexing to a stranger." "Naturally; all interested people--one myself," said his new acquaintance. "But, as we've got so far, permit me?" and extracting a card from a neat _porte-monnaie_, he handed it to Massinger, who, glancing at it, perceived the name of MR. DUDLEY SLYDE, _Secretary to the New Zealand Land Company, Auckland and Christchurch._ "Happy to make your acquaintance," he said. "I am not sure that I have a card. My name is Massinger." "What! Massinger of the Court, Herefordshire? Heard generally you had sold your place and gone in for colonizing. What the devil--er--excuse me. Reasons, no doubt; but if I had the luck to be the owner of Massinger Court--_born_ to it, mind you--I'd have seen all the colonies swallowed up by an earthquake before I'd have left England. No! not for all New Zealand, from the 'Three Kings' to Cape Palliser." "If all Englishmen felt alike in that respect, we shouldn't have had an empire, should we?" suggested the other. "Somebody must take the chances of war and adventure." "_Somebody else_ it would have been in my case," promptly replied Mr. Slyde. "However, matter of taste. Every man manage his own affairs. Great maxim. And as mine are mixed up in this blessed company, if you'll look me up in Auckland, I'll put you up to a wrinkle or two in the matter of land-purchase--of course you'll want to buy land; otherwise _you_ might get sold--you see? Stock Exchange with a 'boom' on nothing to it." The transfer of Mr. Massinger's trunks in a four-wheeler to a comfortable-appearing hostelry was effected with no more than average delay. An appetizing breakfast, wherein a well-cooked mutton chop was preceded by a grilled flounder, and flanked by eggs and toast, convinced him that the Briton of the South had no occasion to fear degeneration as a consequence of unsuitable living. After which he felt his spirits distinctly improved in tone, and his desire to explore the surroundings of this distant outpost of the wandering Briton took shape and motion.