Mike’s proposal that Joseph Edgerton Douglas manage his property is both a practical response to an unfamiliar body of human business and a public declaration of personal trust. At the Earth–Mars meeting, Jubal Harshaw presents the request to Douglas, the Federation Secretary General, distinguishing his client’s public role as a representative from Mars from his rights and obligations as a human citizen. When Douglas asks Mike directly whether he wants him to handle the affairs, Mike answers plainly before an audience whose proceedings are being heard across the planet. Douglas does not accept on the spot, but promises a prompt answer.

The problem of human business

Jubal frames Mike’s affairs as an unfinished task requiring attention now. Mike has had no experience with business in the human sense, Jubal explains, and the list of what he owns is not even complete. His client, however, is eager to learn Earth’s history, arts, and ways rather than devote himself to financial instruments and royalties. Jubal presents the appointment as a way to let Mike pursue that education without leaving pressing business matters unattended.

The request also marks Mike’s status as more than an emissary. Jubal describes him as a human being and a citizen of both the Federation and the United States, with corresponding rights, property, and obligations. The contrast matters: Mike has arrived from a society that organizes things differently, but his affairs on Earth cannot simply be left outside human legal and financial arrangements. The proposed appointment offers a bridge between those arrangements and his own priorities.

A personal appointment, not an office duty

Jubal asks Douglas to serve as Mike’s attorney-in-fact, with full power over his business affairs. He stresses that the request is directed to Douglas as a person, not to the Secretary General as an officeholder; retirement or a change of government would not transfer the responsibility to a successor. Mike’s confidence rests on Douglas himself, rather than on the authority attached to the Octagon Office.

The arrangement is deliberately broad. Jubal says Mike would accept either a written power of attorney or an oral agreement made immediately, and would not insist on a bond, audits, or fixed instructions. A memorandum suggests possible practical arrangements, including compensation for the steward, an account for living expenses, and the use of the Bank of Shanghai or Lloyd’s as a depository or business agent. Yet these details remain subordinate to the central condition: Mike wants to grant unlimited authority, revocable by either side. The proposal is not a carefully restricted delegation but an expression of confidence that Douglas will exercise judgment on his behalf.

Jubal makes clear that he has already warned Mike how burdensome the work might be. Mike remains unmoved by the objection that Douglas is exceptionally busy; Jubal describes the Martian expectation as one in which greater responsibility accompanies greater demands on a person. Douglas responds that, whatever his eventual answer, he feels honored and humbled. The meeting thus registers the request as a serious personal confidence, not simply another administrative task.

Alternatives and public assent

Mike’s trust in Douglas is not presented as an all-or-nothing gamble. Jubal identifies Ben Caxton as the second choice and says that further successors have also been considered. The alternatives make the arrangement workable if Douglas cannot serve, while leaving clear that Mike’s first choice is the person he is addressing. Jubal distributes a memorandum to Douglas and keeps copies available for Caxton and others, turning the proposal into a concrete matter that can be considered and acted upon.

Douglas then bypasses the intermediary and asks Mike directly whether the paper reflects what he wants. Jubal has prepared Mike for the possibility of such a question but cannot predict its precise form or how Mike’s literal interpretations might affect the exchange. Mike answers yes, clearly, and confirms that he wants Douglas to handle his business affairs. His request that Douglas do so, and his thanks for the favor, leave no ambiguity about the appointment’s intended basis: Mike is choosing a trusted individual and asking for help.

Douglas nevertheless reserves his answer, promising to give it promptly. That qualification keeps the appointment from being represented as completed in the moment; Mike has made his wish public, but Douglas has not yet accepted it. Before Douglas can continue, Assemblyman Kung interrupts to raise the separate question of the Larkin Decision. The scene therefore ends with the financial request acknowledged but awaiting resolution, even as it has already established a striking contrast between institutional protocol and Mike’s direct, personal trust.

Trust made visible

The episode gives a civic and legal problem the form of a personal appeal. Jubal translates Mike’s unfamiliarity with human business into a practical proposal, but the decisive step comes when Mike himself confirms it in the meeting room. His answer is heard not only by those present but throughout the planet, making private confidence a public fact. The breadth of the requested authority, the absence of rigid safeguards, and the explicit separation of Douglas from his office all reinforce the same point: Mike is entrusting his property to a person, not merely assigning it to an institution.

That trust also sits beside the wider negotiations over Mike’s place on Earth. Jubal has just framed him as both a Martian representative and a human citizen, and the request brings the second identity into focus through property, business, and obligation. Rather than let those demands displace his wish to learn Earth’s culture, Mike asks someone he trusts to take responsibility for them. Douglas’s reserved answer leaves the practical outcome pending, while the public exchange establishes the relationship on which any later arrangement would depend.