The Best Policy

Murray, the resourceful Murray, was bewildered. Life insurance an experiment! Surely he could not mean that.

“Well,” he said, “your widow will be pretty sure to think the experiment a success.”

“I haven’t got a widow,” asserted Harry.

“Of course not; but you may have.”

“How can I have a widow when I am dead?” asked Harry. “How can I have anything when I am dead?”

“You can’t tell by the looks of an electric wire how highly it is charged,” mused Murray. “I guess I touched this one too recklessly.” Then to Harry: “But there may be a widow.”

“There may,” returned Harry.

“Well, she’ll be sorry you didn’t experiment on a larger scale, because it really isn’t an experiment at all. There’s only one thing surer than insurance.”

“What’s that?” asked Harry with interest.

“Death; and, with the popular gold bonds or any limited payment policy, you have a chance to beat death by some years. But suit yourself.”

So Harry took the physical examination and got the policy, payable to his estate. Then he promptly assigned it to Alice.

“There’s one thousand dollars sure, if anything should happen to me,” he said. “That beats any old elusive two thousand that Tom Nelson may have.”

“You’re a dear, good, faithful boy, Harry,” she said impulsively, and she gave him a kiss.

That was happiness enough for that day and the next, but on the third he began to get down to earth again and deemed the time propitious.

“You’ll marry me?” he suggested.

“Perhaps,” was her reply.

“Perhaps!” he cried. “It’s always perhaps.”

“Perhaps it won’t be always perhaps,” she returned.

In truth, she had wavered so long that she found it difficult to make up her mind. Besides, Tom was prospering, Tom was devoted, and Tom was a nice fellow. True, he was twenty-six while she was only eighteen, and Harry, at twenty, was nearer her own age, but – well, aside from any question of the future, it was rather nice to have two men so devotedly attentive. Then, too, Tom spent his money more freely, and she derived the benefit in present pleasures. There was no hurry; the future was now brighter, whichever she chose, and, things being so nearly equal, there was even less reason for haste. Alice, in addition to her dread of poverty, was a natural flirt: she enjoyed the power she exerted over these two men. But she said nothing to Tom of Harry’s latest move; perhaps she thought it would be unfair, or perhaps she was a trifle truer to Harry than to Tom.

Harry, in his “simple” way, misinterpreted this irresolution. He was too devoted to criticize; he had begun to understand her dread and to think that she was quite right in taking such a very worldly view of the situation. Why should she not, so far as possible, endeavor to make her future secure? It was for him to convince her of his thoughtfulness and his ability to provide for her. Thereupon he got an accident insurance policy.

“You’re awfully thoughtful, Harry,” she said. “I like you.”

“I don’t want you to worry,” said Harry, flattered and pleased.

“I’m not worrying,” she told him.

“But I am,” he retorted ruefully.

“Men,” she asserted, “are so impatient.”

Harry could not quite agree to this – he thought he had been wonderfully patient. In his straightforward way he began to ponder the matter deeply. It had seemed to him he was doing a wonderfully clever thing that ought to settle the matter definitely. Had he made a mistake? If so, what was necessary to rectify it? Incidentally, he heard that some of Tom Nelson’s little speculations had turned out favorably, and Tom was still quite as devoted as ever and seemed to be received with as much favor. Then to Harry came an idea – a really brilliant idea, he thought.

“Perhaps,” he told himself, “I ought not to have assigned that policy to her; perhaps I ought to have kept it in my control so that a wedding would be necessary to give her the benefit of it. As it is now, she has the policy, no matter whom she marries. I don’t think she would – ”

Without finishing the sentence, Harry knitted his brow and shook his head. It was not a pleasant thought – he told himself it was an unjust thought – but, as he had gone in to win, he might as well take every precaution. If the conditions were a little different, it might put an end to her flirtatious mood and compel a more serious consideration of his suit; it might have a tendency to emphasize his point and “wake her up,” as he expressed it. Possibly, it was just the argument needed.

With this in mind, he again called upon Murray.

“I’m in a little trouble,” he explained. “I ought to have had that policy made out to my wife.”

“It makes no difference, unless the estate is involved in some way,” explained Murray. “She’ll get it through – ”

“It makes a big difference,” interrupted Harry. “You see, I’ve got to get the wife.”

“What!” ejaculated Murray. “Say that again, please.”

“Why, if I had an insurance policy in favor of my wife, it would make it easier to get the wife, wouldn’t it?”

“Thunder!” exclaimed Murray. “I thought I was pretty well up on insurance financiering, but this beats me. Are you hanging an insurance policy up as a sort of prize package?”

“That’s it, that’s it!” cried Harry, pleased to find the situation so quickly comprehended. “The other fellow is worth more, but insurance looks bigger than anything else I can buy for the money, and I want to show her how much safer she will be with me than with him.”

“You’re all right,” laughed Murray, “but I’m afraid you’ll have to marry first. We can’t very well make a policy payable to a person who doesn’t exist, and you have no wife now. When you have one, bring the policy back if you’re not satisfied to have it payable to the estate, and – ”

“But she’s got it.”

“Who?”

“The girl. I assigned it to her, so she doesn’t have to marry me to get the benefit. That wasn’t good business.”

Murray leaned back in his chair and looked at the youth with amusement and curiosity.

“No,” he said at last, “that may have been good sentiment, but it wasn’t good business. And,” he added jokingly, “I don’t know that this transaction is quite legal.”

“Why not?” asked Harry anxiously.

“Well, we’re not allowed to give prizes, and, if a girl goes with the policy, it looks a good deal like a prize-package affair. I’m not sure that that wouldn’t be considered worse than giving rebates on premiums.”

“You’ve got the wrong idea,” argued Harry with solemn earnestness. “The girl doesn’t go with the policy, but the policy goes with me. At least, that’s what I intended.”

“Better try it again with another policy,” suggested Murray. “Make it payable to your estate, and then hang on to it until you get the girl. Let me give you a word of advice, too, although it’s not exactly to my interest.”

“Well?”

“Well, the policy that you gave to her doesn’t amount to much if you stop paying premiums on it. You might suggest that to her.”

“By George! I never thought of that!” exclaimed the youth. “I guess I haven’t much of a financial head.”

“Oh, you’re all right,” returned Murray. “You’re the first fellow I ever knew who made a matrimonial bureau of an insurance office. I’ve got something to learn about this business yet.”