“I don’t think it would be safe,” returned Murray, “unless you were searched for weapons first.”
So the doctor and Murray settled down to await, with some anxiety, the next move in the game, and their patience was rewarded by the receipt of five certificates of health from as many different physicians, each certificate having a message of some sort scribbled across the top. “The patient had to ride a hundred miles to get these,” Mrs. Tucker had written on the first. “There were a few shares of this stock in my late lamented uncle’s estate,” appeared in Tucker’s handwriting on the second. “The president of your company is rusticating a few miles from here,” Mrs. Tucker asserted on the third. “Better come out here for a few days,” Tucker urged on the fourth. “Poor Ralph!” was Mrs. Tucker’s comment on the fifth.
“Poor Dave Murray!” grumbled Murray, and he and the doctor started West the next day. “Might as well get this thing settled,” he said. “You and I have got to be on harmonious terms with the stock-holders. Besides, there’s an early grave yawning for me if I don’t succeed in making peace with Mrs. Tucker. I tell you, Doctor, when a woman decides to make things uncomfortable for a man,—well, the man might just as well resign himself to being perpetually uncomfortable.”
And yet, no one could have greeted them more graciously than did Mrs. Tucker.
“I’m so glad you’ve come,” she said, “and brought the doctor. It is particularly pleasing to have the doctor here, for I want him to see if something can’t be done for poor Ralph. I’m sure I don’t know what’s going to become of the poor fellow. He doesn’t sleep any better than a baby, and he can’t ride over a hundred miles without getting tired. His muscles aren’t a bit harder than iron, either, and his heart beats all the time.”
“Mrs. Tucker,” said Murray appealingly, “what can we do to make peace with you?”
“Without even seeing your husband again,” added the doctor, “I am willing to concede that he will live to be three thousand years old.”
“We are beaten,” asserted Murray. “You have humbled our business and professional pride. We give Mr. Tucker none of the credit; it all belongs to you. We claim to be the equals of any man, but of no woman. Now, on what terms can we have peace?”
“I did want your insurance company for a sort of belated wedding present,” said Mrs. Tucker thoughtfully.
“I’d give it to you if I could,” said Murray with the utmost sincerity. “I assure you, that company has been nothing but an annoyance to me ever since you cast longing eyes on the stock.”