“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.