"Shall you apply to another office to insure your life?" Jane asked. "I would, if I thought it would not be useless." "You think it would be useless?" "The offices all keep their own doctors, and those doctors, it is my belief, are unnecessarily particular. I should call them crotchety, Jane." "I think it must amount to this," said Jane; "that if there is anything seriously the matter with you, no office will be found to do it; but if the affection is only trifling or temporary you may be accepted." "That is about it. Oh, Jane!" he added, with an irrepressible burst of anguish, "what would I not give to have insured my life before this came upon me! All those past years! They seem to have been allowed to run to waste, when I might have been using them to lay up in store for the children!" How many are there of us who, looking back, can feel that our past years, in some way or other, have _not_ been allowed to run to waste? What a sleepless night that was for him! What a sleepless night for his wife! Both rose in the morning equally unrefreshed. "To what doctor will you go?" Jane inquired as she was dressing. "I have been thinking of Dr. Arnold of Finsbury," he replied. "Yes, you could not go to a better. Edgar, you will let me accompany you?" "No, no, Jane. Your accompanying me would do no good. You could not go into the room with me." She saw the force of the objection. "I shall be so very anxious," she said, in a low tone. He laughed at her; he was willing to make light of it if it might ease her fears. "My dear, I will come home at once and report to you: I will borrow Jack's seven-leagued boots, that I may come to you the quicker." "You know that I _shall_ be anxious," she repeated, feeling vexed. "Jane," he said, his tone changing: "I see that you are more anxious already than is good for you. It is not well that you should be so." "I wish I could be with you! I wish I could hear, as you will, Dr. Arnold's opinion from his own lips!" was all she answered. "I will faithfully repeat it to you," said Mr. Halliburton. "Faithfully--word for word? On your honour?" "Yes, Jane, I will. You have my promise. Good news I shall be only too glad to tell you; and, should it be the worst, it will be necessary that you should know it." "You must be there before ten o'clock," she observed; "otherwise there will be little chance of seeing him." "I shall be there by nine, Jane. To spare time later would interfere too much with my day's work." A thought crossed Jane's mind--if the fiat were unfavourable what would become of his day's work then--all his days? But she did not utter it. "Oh, papa," cried Janey at breakfast, "was it not a beautiful party! Did you _ever_ enjoy yourself so much before?" "I don't suppose you ever did, Janey," he replied, in kindly tones. "No, that I never did. Alice Harvey's birthday comes in summer, and she says she knows her mamma will let her give just such another! Mamma!"--turning to Mrs. Halliburton.