"Why not, sir?"
"Because I am not satisfied with you. I cannot recommend you as a healthy life."
Mr. Halliburton's pulses quickened a little. "Sir!" he repeated. "Not a healthy life?"
"Not sufficiently healthy for insurance."
"Why! what is the matter with me?" he rejoined.
Dr. Carrington looked him full in the face for the space of a minute before replying. "I have had that question asked me before by parties whom I have felt obliged to decline as I am now declining you," he said, "and my answer has not always been palatable to them."
"It will be palatable to me, sir; in so far as that I desire to be made acquainted with the truth. What do you find amiss with me?"
"The lungs are diseased."
A chill fell over Mr. Halliburton. "Not extensively, I trust? Not beyond hope of recovery?"
"Were I to say not extensively, I should be deceiving you; and you tell me that you wish for the truth. They are extensively diseased——"