"Glad to meet you, ladies both! I congratulate you, Mrs. Mason, on having so distinguished a son."
"He is a good boy, Mr. Bunsby, whether he is distinguished or not."
"I have no doubt of it. In fact I am sure of it. You already know that I keep a dime museum, where, if I do say it myself, may be found an unrivaled collection of curiosities gathered from the four quarters of the globe, and where may be witnessed the most refined and recherché entertainments, which delight daily the élite of New York and the surrounding cities."
"Yes, sir," assented Mrs. Mason, rather puzzled to guess what all this had to do with her.
"I have come here to offer your son an engagement of four weeks at twenty-five dollars a week, and the privilege of selling his photographs, with all the profits it may bring."
"But what am I to do?" asked Mark.
"Merely to sit on the platform with the other curiosities."
"But I am not a curiosity."
"I beg your pardon, my dear boy, but everybody will want to see the heroic boy who foiled a dynamite fiend and saved the life of a banker."
Somehow this proposal was very repugnant to Mark.