The insurance business being once decided on, Mr. Sheldon lost no time in
putting it into execution. Although he made a point of secrecy as
regarded Mr. Hawkehurst, he went to work in no underhand manner, but
managed matters after a Highly artistic and superior fashion. He took his
stepdaughter to the offices of Greenwood and Greenwood, and explained her
wishes to one of those gentlemen in her presence. If he dwelt a little
more on Miss Halliday's anxiety for her mother's pecuniary advantage than
his previous conversation with Miss Halliday warranted, the young lady
was too confiding and too diffident to contradict him. She allowed him to
state, or rather to imply, that the proposed insurance was her
spontaneous wish, an emanation of her anxious and affectionate heart, the
natural result of an almost morbid care for her mother's welfare.
Mr. Hargrave Greenwood, of Greenwood and Greenwood, seemed at first
inclined to throw cold water on the proposition, but after some little
debate, agreed that extreme caution would certainly counsel such a step.
"I should imagine there was no better life amongst the inhabitants of
London," he said, "than Miss Shel--pardon me--Miss Halliday's. But, as
the young lady herself suggests, 'in the midst of life we are--'; and, as
the young lady herself has observed, these things are--ahem--beyond
human foresight. If there were any truth in the aphorisms of poets, I
should say Miss Halliday cannot insure too quickly; for the remark of
Cowper--or, stay, I believe Pope--'whom the gods love die young,' might
very well be supposed to apply to so charming a young lady.
Pages:
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276