“And leave your affairs to take care of themselves?” “No; I shall have a business man to act for me.” “I don’t know where you will find one who could do your dreaming for you,” laughed Dick. “I know of only one man who can think and feel for me, Dick; and that is yourself.” “I!” “There will be a great deal of legal business to be done, and I must have a lawyer. I will give you a salary of five thousand dollars--more if you say so.” “You are getting personal. There should be nothing mercenary between friends. The salary is double what I should make at my profession in the city.” “But it is only a little more than two and a half per cent on the money you will handle.” “I accept the offer, because I think it is only a fair one.” “I will give you ten thousand.” “And sell me at your own price! No, I should not be your friend if I took advantage of your liberality.” “I should have said ten in the first place, but I feared you would think I intended to patronize you, to make you a creature of my bounty, as the novels say, which would be an insult to you. You have a soul, Dick. Now let me talk to you as my business man.” “Go on; I am all ears.” The sea was quite rough outside The Great Bell, and for the purpose of making the conversation easy and free, Eugene had put the boat about, and she was now standing, close-hauled, up the river; otherwise Mary and the artist would have been seen before. “At the Port and at the Mills there is a population of at least four thousand poor people,” continued Eugene. “Now we come to the eleemosynary schemes,” laughed Dick. “Don’t mistake me. I seek my own comfort and luxury first, for even these help the poor indirectly. I attend to my own salvation first; and have no opinion of those who neglect their own souls in running after the souls of others. Not a dollar of charity shall be wrung from me. I repeat that I shall not go prowling about the country on missions of benevolence. Your sickly sentimental philanthropist, with long hair parted in the middle, who lives on cold beans and warm water, is not my ideal of the man who reforms the world and carries blessings to the poor and needy. I propose to do something, but I don’t wish to make any noise about it. I had about as lief be pointed at as a thief as a professional philanthropist.” “Do you mean clergymen, missionaries, agents of charitable associations, who collect money for the poor and the wronged?”