Dr. Bannister and Lawyer Colbert were occasional visitors and Quincy received a manifest mental exhilaration from his intercourse with them. His sickness had led him to think about the future. Was he to live and die as the treasurer of a grocery company? Had he no higher ideal? A story told by Jack and Ned, which they knew to be true, because they were the principal actors therein, led Quincy to give himself up to some mighty thinking. The story was related one evening in the sitting-room when Tom was present. “What I'm going to tell,” began Ned, “will include much more than I saw or knew myself, but it all comes from authentic sources. I shall omit names, since they are unessential. “Among my clients was an old gentleman, over seventy years of age, but still erect and vigorous. One morning I received a letter requesting me to call at his house. I found him in bed feeling all tired out. He said he had never had a doctor in his life. “The doctor, here, assures me that those people who never need a doctor until they are well advanced in life are not likely to require a physician's services more than once. The next call is for the undertaker.” “That's so,” broke in Jack; “it's the person who is continually calling upon a doctor for every little ailment who lives to an old age, for instead of letting disease creep upon him, he calls for medical assistance as soon as he experiences any derangement of his physical system. If all the people would follow this plan, it would increase the longevity of the human race.” “And materially increase the income of the medical profession,” added Quincy. “It proved to be the old gentleman's first and last sickness. In order that you may fully understand the wonderful event which took place the night he died, I shall have to give you a history of his family.” Quincy consulted his watch. “It is now but a few minutes past seven. I will give you until midnight, my usual time for retiring.” “I have an engagement at ten or thereabouts,” said Jack, “but it's a matter of life instead of death.” Ned continued: “My client had a son and daughter, both married. They were good children and loved their father on the American plan. The son had married an avaricious woman, while the daughter was married to a man who was not so avaricious as his sister-in-law. The old gentleman was very wealthy and like all good children they were thinking of the time when the property would be divided.” “I see signs of a family squabble,” remarked Quincy.