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36 could, and wished that we had time to visit the rich mines at Waihi, only a few miles farther along the same line.

The afternoon we spent in the grounds of the Pavilion, trying the mineral drinking waters, (most of them very nasty), and talking to the Doctor in charge, the most charming Irishman, with a fund of stories and anecdotes. But his funniest stories did not entirely make me forget that Colonel Deane was to meet and join us next day, and I was only able to give a very divided attention to everything but the time, which for once lagged abominably.

But Wednesday and my dear “Man of Comfort” came at last. He met us at Frankton Junction, where we all had to change trains again, but though the new local, from Frankton to Tamaranui, was really slower even than the one between Frankton and Te Aroha, none of us noticed it until we compared the table of distances afterwards. We had been a companionable trio, but now we were once again a quartette of companions, and there is a very great difference between the two!