Lumley Grantham, after fruitless visits, first to Gloucestershire, and then Lahore, finally set out for New Zealand, “the wonderland of the world,” with its mountains, glaciers, waterfalls, and lakes. Here it took some time tracing a lady who, three months previously, had landed at Dunedin; but he tracked her steps patiently, and at last discovered that she had disappeared among a Maori tribe near Kaiapui in the lake country. Here he sought the great “Pa” of the chief Ramparaha, and found him, the splendid wreck of a fine Maori warrior, wrapped in a cloak of feathers, his head adorned with the plumes of authority, enjoying a long pipe in the door of his abode. Around were various Maori women, young and old, with thick, grizzly black hair and tall, graceful figures, dressed, as is the present custom, in skirts and blouses, instead of their picturesque native costumes. A few fine, stalwart men were loitering about, smoking and talking. Over them all lay the spell of unconquerable indolence—children, dogs, and flies were the only objects endowed with vitality.
In reply to Captain Grantham’s question, the chief replied, “Yes, one white woman come here two moons ago—my daughter’s daughter, she said—but she was all English. Her mother was Tassila the beautiful, who died young. I gave her baby to a lady from Wellington. Twenty years after the baby comes back to the tribe; but she is a stranger.”
“Yes, of course she is,” assented his visitor, with emphasis.
“She liked not our food, nor our ways, although we held a Tangi in her honour and gave poi deones and hakas. She would not even look—also she knew not our tongue. She sat all day alone in her hut and wept, and ate nought, and grew thin, oh, so thin—and then she—as was best—left us.”
“Where is she?” enquired Captain Grantham eagerly; “you know?”
“Oh yes,” gravely nodding his plumed head, “I know.”
“And will you take me—will you show me?”
“Why do you seek her?”
“Because she and I were to have been married, and I have come to fetch her back to England.”
“Ah!” rising stiffly, “and so you were to marry my granddaughter Rata. Then follow me, and I will show you where she is.”