"I feel sure
he can help you to some employment, and in the
meantime, and for three months after your arrival, he
shall pay to yourself personally, on the first and the
fifteenth, twenty-five dollars."
"Mr. Dodd, I scarce believe you can be serious in this
offer," he replied. "Have you forgotten the
circumstances of the case? Do you know these people are
the magnates of the section? They were spoken of to-
night in the saloon; their wealth must amount to many
millions of dollars in real estate alone; their house
is one of the sights of the locality, and you offer me
a bribe of a few hundred!"
"I offer you no bribe, Mr. Bellairs; I give you alms,"
I returned. "I will do nothing to forward you in your
hateful business; yet I would not willingly have you
starve."
"Give me a hundred dollars then, and be done with it,"
he cried.
"I will do what I have said, and neither more nor
less," said I.
"Take care," he cried. "You are playing a fool's game;
you are making an enemy for nothing; you will gain
nothing by this, I warn you of it!" And then with one
of his changes, "Seventy dollars--only seventy--in
mercy, Mr.
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