“I am very much obliged to you,” said Montague.
“The matter is a delicate one,” continued the other. “It has to do with life insurance. Are you familiar with the insurance business?”
“Not at all.”
“I had supposed not,” said the Judge. “There are some conditions which are not generally known about, but which I may say, to put it mildly, are not altogether satisfactory. My friend is a large policy-holder in several companies, and he is not satisfied with the management of them. The delicacy of the situation, so far as I am concerned, is that the company with which he has the most fault to find is one in which I myself am a director. You understand?”
“Perfectly,” said Montague. “What company is it?”
“The Fidelity,” replied the other—and his companion thought in a flash of Freddie Vandam, whom he had met at Castle Havens! For the Fidelity was Freddie’s company.
“The first thing that I have to ask you,” continued the Judge, “is that, whether you care to take the case or not, you will consider my own intervention in the matter absolutely entre nous. My position is simply this: I have protested at the meetings of the directors of the company against what I consider an unwise policy—and my protests have been ignored. And when my friend asked me for advice, I gave it to him; but at the same time I am not in a position to be publicly quoted in connexion with the matter. You follow me?”
“Perfectly,” said the other. “I will agree to what you ask.”
“Very good. Now then, the condition is, in brief, this: the companies are accumulating an enormous surplus, which, under the law, belongs to the policy-holders; but the administrations of the various companies are withholding these dividends, for the sake of the banking-power which these accumulated funds afford to them and their associates. This is, as I hold, a very manifest injustice, and a most dangerous condition of affairs.”
“I should say so!” responded Montague. He was amazed at such a statement, coming from such a source. “How could this continue?” he asked.