I am glad to hear that the wedding is to be an event of the immediate future, and I have no doubt that Gerald is quite of my way of thinking.
I am patriotic enough to be pleased that you are going to marry an Englishman. Not that I have any particular prejudice against foreigners; but their marriage laws differ from ours and thereby lead to complications.
For instance, a Frenchman, no matter what his age, cannot legally marry without the consent of his parents, a fact which it is just as well for English girls to remember.
Now I know that you will not be offended with me when I tell you that your _fiancé_, although a man of business, is not a business man.
This may sound contradictory, but is not really so. There are many men who follow regular occupations and attend to their own particular business and yet are not, strictly speaking, men of business habits and instincts. Literary men, musicians, artists, and inventors may be generally regarded as instances in point. And Gerald, who is an engineer and inventor, is not one of the exceptions to the rule, which is my reason for offering you the following suggestions.
In the first place I would strongly advise you to persuade Gerald to insure his life in some respectable English office; the American ones are risky.
It is true that he is making a good income, but he has very little money put by for a rainy day, for both of which reasons I would suggest that he takes out a policy for £1,000 with profits. The premium for insuring without profits would be a little less, but I am certain that it is better on the whole to insure with profits.
The policy he can assign to you or leave you in his will, or, if he waits till you are married, he can, if he likes, effect what is called a trust policy for your benefit, and, so long as any object of the trust remains unperformed, the policy will not form part of his estate or become subject to his debts. The last few words of the foregoing sentence you will be able to understand. You need not trouble your head about the meaning of "trust" and "performance"; it is sufficient for you to know that the arrangement is intended to benefit married ladies, and can be carried out under the provisions of the Married Women's Property Act.