"Yes, so I have heard. Well then, Mr Penwynn, if you will give me a letter or two of introduction, I should think there ought to be no difficulty in the way." "My dear sir," said Mr Penwynn, smiling, "I'm afraid you are very sanguine." "Well--perhaps a little, sir, but--" "Hear me out, Mr Trethick. It seems to me you have come to the worst place in the world." "The worst! Why so?" "Because every one here will look upon your schemes as visionary. If you had a vast capital, and liked to spend it in experiments, well and good. People would laugh at your failures, and applaud your successes-- if you made any." "If?" said Geoffrey, smiling. "Then, sir, you are not sanguine?" "Not at all," said the banker. "You see, Mr Trethick, you will not find any one in this neighbourhood who will let you run risks with his capital and machinery, or tamper with the very inadequate returns that people are now getting from their mines. If you wanted a simple post as manager--" "That's what I do want," said Geoffrey, interrupting. "The other would follow." "I say, if you wanted a simple post as manager," continued the banker, as calmly as if he had not been interrupted, "you would not get it unless you could lay before a company of proprietors ample testimonials showing your experience in mining matters. Believe me, Mr Trethick, you, a gentleman, have come to the wrong place." "Let us sink the word _gentleman_ in its ordinary acceptation, Mr Penwynn," said Geoffrey, warmly. "I hope I shall always be a gentleman, but I come to you, sir, as a working man--one who has to win his income by his brain-directed hands." "You should have gone out to some speculative mining place, Mr Trethick," said the banker, taking one leg across his knee and caressing it. "Nevada or Peru--Australia if you like. You would make a fortune there. Here you will starve." "Starve! Not if I have to help the fishermen with their nets, Mr Penwynn. I can row well, sir," he said, laughing, "and I have muscle enough to let me pull strongly at a rope. Starve? I've no fear of that." "No, no; of course not. I mean metaphorically. But why not try the colonies or the States?" "Because I have a mother who impoverished herself to complete my expensive university education, Mr Penwynn; and it would almost break her heart if I left England." "Exactly," said the banker, with a slight sneer; "but you have come as far from civilisation as you could get in visiting Carnac. Now then, take my advice. Come up to An Morlock, and dine with me this evening-- seven sharp. I can give you a bed for a night or two. Then have a run round the district, see a few of the mines, and spy out the nakedness of the land. You will soon get an indorsement of what I say. You can then go back to London with my best respects to Rundell and Sharp--most worthy people, by the way, whom I would gladly engage--and tell them you have returned a sadder but a wiser man."