The Best Policy Part 7

"But I can't!" cried Wentworth. "I haven't the money, and I must provide for the little woman and the baby. My G.o.d! how helpless they would be without me!"

Wentworth went from the doctor's office to the safe-deposit vaults where he kept his securities. He was a desperate man now-a man who had deliberately decided to sacrifice his life for those he loved. He would continue in business another year-two years, if necessary and the Lord permitted-and he would bend every energy to making provision for his little family. It might-nay, probably would-kill him, but what matter?

To buy life at the expense of their future would be supremely selfish.

And he might succeed before the fatal summons came: he might get his affairs in such shape in a year that he could retire with almost as good a chance of life as he had now-if he could stand the strain so long. But in his heart he felt he was p.r.o.nouncing his own doom. He might put the optimistic view of the situation in words, but he did not believe the words. A great fear-a fear that was almost a certainty-gripped hard at his heart.

"_Hic jacet!_" he said to himself, as he went over the securities and estimated the amount of available cash he could command. He had speculated before and had been reasonably successful in most instances; he must speculate again, for in no other way could he bring his resources up to the point desired within the time limitations. The moment he reached this point he would put everything in stocks or bonds that would be absolutely safe. Indeed, he would do this as fast as he got a little ahead of the game.

Wentworth had speculated previously only with money that he could afford to lose; but he was speculating now with his entire surplus. It had been a divertis.e.m.e.nt before; it was a business now. He had to win-and he lost. No one could be more careful than he, but his judgment was wrong.

When he had given the markets no particular attention he had taken an occasional "flier" with success; when he made a study of conditions and discussed the situation with friendly authorities he found himself almost invariably in error.

There was something pathetic and disquieting in the affection and consideration he displayed for his wife and child during this time. He endeavored to conceal his own distress, but morning after morning his wife clung to him and looked anxiously into his face. He spoke cheeringly, but he grew daily more haggard, and she knew he was concealing something. Once she asked for news about the life insurance policy.

"Oh, that's all settled," he replied, but he did not tell her how it was settled.

Finally she went to see Murray. He had brought the news that had made this great change in her husband, and he could tell her what was worrying him. Murray had not called since that evening. While in no sense responsible for it, he had been so closely identified with this blow that had fallen on his friend that he felt his presence, for a time at least, would be only an unpleasant reminder.

"I must know this secret," she told Murray with earnest directness of speech. "It is killing Stanley. He is worried and anxious, and he is working himself to death in an effort to straighten out some complication."

"He mustn't do that!" exclaimed Murray quickly. "Work and worry are the two things for him to avoid."

"Why?" demanded Mrs. Wentworth.

Murray hesitated. He knew why Wentworth had kept this from his wife, but was it wise? The man was deliberately walking to his grave. Ought not his wife to be informed in order that she might take the necessary steps to save him? It would be a breach of confidence, but did not the circ.u.mstances justify it? Wentworth was his friend, and he had a sincere regard for Mrs. Wentworth. Surely he ought not to stand idly by and witness a tragedy that he might prevent.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "You-you didn't insure him?" she said inquiringly]

"Mrs. Wentworth," he said at last, "the thing that is worrying Stanley is the fact that we had to decline him as a risk."

"You-you didn't insure him?" she said inquiringly, as if she did not quite comprehend.

"No."

"He let me think you had."

"Because he did not wish to distress you, and I a.s.sure you, Mrs.

Wentworth, I would not tell you this myself, were it not for the fact that Stanley is doing the most unwise thing possible."

"I am very glad you did tell me," she said quietly. She was not an emotional woman, but the pallor of her face and something of anxious fright in her eyes told how deeply she felt. "What must I do?"

"Get him out of business and away from excitement," replied Murray promptly. "In a quiet place, if he takes care of himself, he may live as long as any of us."

When Wentworth reached home that evening, the little woman, always affectionate, greeted him with unusual tenderness. She said nothing of her visit to Murray, but later she brought up the subject of moving to the country.

"I'm dreadfully worried about you, Stanley," she said. "You must take a vacation."

"I can't," he replied.

"But you must," she insisted. "You've been working too hard lately."

"Next year," he said, "I hope to get out of this city turmoil and take you away to some quiet place, where we can live for each other and the baby."

She went over and knelt beside him, as he leaned wearily back in his big arm-chair.

"Why not now?" she pleaded.

"My G.o.d! I can't, Helen!" he cried. "I want to, but I can't! If you only knew-"

"I only know that you will break down, if you don't take a rest," she interrupted hastily. It would only add to his distress to learn that she knew his secret. "Don't you suppose I can see how you are overtaxing your strength? We must go away for a time, anyway."

"Little woman," he said, putting an arm round her, "it's a question of finance, and you never could understand that very well. When I get things in shape we will go, but not yet. I have some investments to watch, and,"-wearily,-"things have gone rather against me lately. There are lots of things to be done before I can take any extended vacation, and it is even a more serious matter to retire permanently. My earning capacity is about all we have to live on now."

"I thought you had money invested," she remarked.

"I had," he replied, "but it was not enough, and in trying to make it enough I made some wrong guesses on the market."

"Never mind," she said cheerily. "We'll make the best of what's left. We won't need much if we get away from this fearful life. It isn't money that the baby and I want, it's you; and we don't want you to die for us, but to live for us."

Wentworth gave his wife a quick glance, for this was. .h.i.tting very close to his secret; but he saw in her only the very natural anxiety of a loving wife, who knew that her husband was overtaxing his strength.

"You mean well," he said, "but you don't know."

Mrs. Wentworth was not a business woman, and she knew little of her husband's affairs, but she had a feeling that this question of life insurance was all that stood in the way of the precautions that he ought to take. He could get something for his interest in the business, if he retired, but not enough to make proper provision for her. He could take up some quiet pursuit and continue to make a little money as long as he lived, but he could leave only the most trifling income. And, in his efforts to improve matters, he had only made them worse. She understood so much.

There was an undercurrent of sadness, but still something beautiful, in the life that followed this conversation. All the little sympathetic attentions that love can suggest, each gave to the other, while each worried in secret, seeking only to make life a little easier and more cheerful for the other.

But Mrs. Wentworth was becoming as desperate as her husband, and even more unreasoning. Was not her husband's life worth all the money of all the insurance companies? And were they not condemning him to death by their action? It was more than a risk that depended upon life; it was a life that depended upon the risk. In a little time she convinced herself that the insurance companies could save him and would not, failing utterly to appreciate the fact that, even with the greatest precautions, the chances were against him; that there was only a possibility that he might live longer than a few years, the probability being quite the reverse.

Murray was shocked when she called to see him again. The change in her husband was no greater than the change in her. Was not the man she loved committing suicide before her eyes? And was he not doing this for love of her and the baby? Would not such a condition of affairs make any woman desperate and unreasoning?

"Mr. Murray," she said, "if you are as good a friend to my husband as he has always been to you, you will save his life."

"I will do anything in my power, Mrs. Wentworth," replied Murray.

"Nothing in life ever has so distressed me as this."

"Then give him the policy he wants."

"Impossible! Why, the doctor-"

"You can fix it with the doctor; you know you can! Or you can get another doctor to pa.s.s him! Oh, Mr. Murray! I am not asking for money; I am asking for life-for his life! It's suicide-murder! I want to get him away! I must get him away! But I can't while he fears for our future-the baby's and mine! He must provide for us, and he's losing the little he had! He can't stand it a month longer! Give him the policy, Mr. Murray, and I'll swear to you never to present it for payment! It's only for him that I ask it! You can give him life-give your friend life! Won't you do it?"

The tears were running down the little woman's cheeks, and Murray could not trust himself to speak for a moment.

"Mrs. Wentworth," he said at last, "every cent I have is at your husband's disposal, if he needs it, but what you ask is utterly impossible. The risk would be refused at the home office, even if I pa.s.sed it, for the fact that he has been refused by two other companies would be reported there."

In the case of another, Murray would have said more, but he knew that Mrs. Wentworth was quite beside herself and did not really appreciate that she was asking him to be dishonest with the company that employed him.

"He wouldn't touch a cent of the money of such a friend!" she exclaimed with sudden anger. "He's not a beggar, and neither am I! All I seek for him is the tranquility that means life; all I ask is the removal of the anxiety that means death. And this little you will not do for a friend!"

She was beside herself with desperation.