The poor man is helpless at the rich man's foot; and the rich man plays with him, as a cat with a mouse.
'Well,' he says, 'emigrate. The country would be well rid of such as you.'
Saul Fielding takes no notice of the insult. He is not to be turned aside from his purpose, although he knows full well that he has missed his mark.
'I have no means, sir; I am poor and helpless.'
'How do you propose to effect your object, then?'
'There are Government emigrant ships which take men out, I have heard, for very little--for nothing almost. A line of recommendation from you would be sufficiently powerful, I thought, to obtain me a passage.'
'Doubtless, doubtless,' this with a smile; 'but you are a man of some perception, and having observed how utterly I disagree with your opinions--which I consider abominable and mischievous to the last degree--you can hardly expect me to give you the recommendation you ask for. May I ask, as you are a perfect stranger to me, for I have no recollection of you in any way, to what I am indebted for the honour you have done me by choosing me to give you a good character?'
'You are a public man, sir, and I have heard a friend to the working man. And as you had helped a friend of mine to emigrate by giving him a free passage in a ship that sails this week----'
'Stop, stop, if you please. I help a friend of yours to emigrate by giving him a free passage! I think you are mistaken.'
'If you say so, sir, I must be. But this is what George Naldret gave me to understand.'