Mr. Million stares loftily at Saul Fielding.
'And children, doubtless!'
'Happy he who has them! It is Nature's law; and no man can gainsay it.' The theme possesses a fascination for Saul Fielding, and he continues warmly, 'I put aside as distinctly outrageous all that is said of the folly and wickedness of poor people marrying and having large families. This very fact, which theorists wax indignant over--theorists, mind you, who have wives and families themselves, and who, by their arguments, lay down the monstrous proposition that nature works in the blood according to the length of a man's purse--this very fact has made England strong; had it been otherwise, the nation would have been emasculated. Besides, you can't set natural feeling to the tune of theory; nor, when a man's individual happiness is concerned, can you induce him to believe in the truth of general propositions which, being carried out in his own person as one of the units, would make his very existence hateful to him.'
Mr. Million opens his eyes even wider than before; such language from the lips of the ragged man before him is indeed astonishing.
'What more have you to say? he gasps. 'You will want property equally divided----'
'No, sir, indeed,' interrupts Saul Fielding, daring to feel indignant, even in the presence of so rich a man, at the suggestion. 'The man who makes honestly for himself is entitled to possess and enjoy. I am no socialist.'
'You would, at all events,' pursues Mr. Million, 'feed the working man with a silver spoon?--You would open the places of amusement for him on the Sabbath?'
'I would open some places and shut others.'
'What places, now?'
'The museums, the public galleries. I would give him every chance--he has a right to it--to elevate himself during the only leisure he has.'