Is it a bad loss?"

"Reported total," replied the other, turning over the telegram. "My
boy, you're usually so careful, I don't understand how you came to put
through such business. You ought at least to have referred it to Mr.
O'Connor or myself."

Smith glanced again at the Vice-president, but that gentleman remained
silent, and the General Agent again swallowed what was on his tongue to
utter.

"Yes, sir, I should have done so," he substituted.

Mr. Wintermuth continued: "We cannot write such risks as that and hope
to make an underwriting profit. They say I am a believer in 4 per cent
bonds--perhaps I am, but I am _not_ a believer in 4 per cent mattress
factories." The old gentleman softened his criticism with a smile.

But to Smith, feeling rather than seeing the half-hidden satisfaction
of the Vice-president, the President's kindly manner proved of little
comfort. For Smith and O'Connor knew that the line in question had
been submitted to O'Connor, and that in view of the competition of
several very liberal companies in the Providence agency, the
Vice-president had authorized its acceptance. With his wonted caution,
however, he had refrained from putting himself on record, other than
orally.

"Reinsure half, and put it through, Smith," he had directed; and Smith
had done so.

In cases where his own security was involved, Mr. F. Mills O'Connor was
an exceedingly cautious man. Looking before he leaped was with him
almost a passion; and if he expected to leap on a Thursday, it was
generally estimated that he began his preliminary looking on Monday of
the week before.

He was a large, clean-shaven, dark-haired man of indeterminate age. By
his profession at large he was little known, but in the Guardian office
he was very well known indeed and excellently understood, and an
appreciation of his character and qualities truthfully set down by the
observant Jimmy or by Herbert, the map clerk, would never have been
selected by the O'Connor family as satisfactory material for a
flattering obituary notice.

It appeared likely, however, that it would be a long time before his
obituary would be written. He was probably, at this time, a year or
two the other side of forty, and his care of himself was unimpeachable,
for he guarded his health as carefully as he did his other assets. He
had become Vice-President and underwriting head of the company several
years before this story opens, and it seemed probable