“When?” asked Beckford hopefully.
“When they begin to think of the needs and the future and the possible hardships of the first baby,” replied Murray, whereat Beckford blushed a little, even as his wife had done a few days before, for young people do not consider and discuss prospective family problems with the same candor that their elders do.
“Woman, the true woman,” Murray continued, “is essentially unselfish; she thinks of others. Careless for her own future, she plans painstakingly for those she loves. The insurance premium that is for her own benefit she would rather have to spend now, but you never hear her object to the investment of any money that is to benefit her husband or children, even when she has to make sacrifices to permit it.”
“But that doesn’t help me,” complained Beckford. “I don’t want any insurance on her life; I don’t need it, and there is no reason to think that I ever shall need it. It’s for her that I am planning, but she won’t listen to anything but this dual arrangement.”
“I quite understand the situation,” returned Murray. “What insurance you are able to take out must be to protect her.”
“Precisely; and I never knew before that a woman could be so unreasoningly wilful in opposition to her own interests.”
“My dear sir,” said Murray, with some feeling, “you have a great deal to learn about women. I have more than twenty thousand dollars charged up to them in commissions that I have lost, after convincing the men interested. But if I can help you to provide for this one perverse sample of femininity, in spite of herself, I shall feel that I have taken a Christian revenge on the whole sex.” Beckford rather objected to this reference to his wife, but there was nothing of disrespect in the tone, and somehow the quaintness of the sentiment made him smile.
“I wonder,” Murray went on, “if we could refuse the risk without frightening her.”
“I’m afraid not,” returned Beckford, “but”—and a sudden inspiration lighted his face, “couldn’t you put in some restrictions that would frighten her away?”
Murray leaned back in his chair and gave the matter thoughtful consideration. Somehow he had become unusually interested in this young man’s effort to do a wise and generous thing for his wife in the face of her opposition. If the man had been seeking to gain some benefit for himself, Murray would not have listened to even a suggestion of deceit. But the aim was entirely unselfish, and Beckford had brought a letter of introduction that left no doubt as to his responsibility and integrity. Then, too, the situation was amusing. Here were two business men plotting—what? Why, the welfare of their opponent, and that only.