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diff --git a/old/2009-04-23_3629-h.zip b/old/2009-04-23_3629-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..65b36c8 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/2009-04-23_3629-h.zip diff --git a/old/2009-04-23_3629.zip b/old/2009-04-23_3629.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..389ce78 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/2009-04-23_3629.zip diff --git a/old/titan10.txt b/old/titan10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b3040e2 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/titan10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,21894 @@ +**The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Titan, by Theodore Dreiser** +#3 in our series by Theodore Dreiser + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. The words +are carefully chosen to provide users with the information they +need about what they can legally do with the texts. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These Etexts Are Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below, including for donations. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3) +organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541 + + + +Title: The Titan
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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.06/12/01*END* +[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + + + + + +Prepared by Kirk Pearson <kpearson@nyx.net> and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + +The Titan + +by Theodore Dreiser + + + + +Chapter I + + + +The New City + +When Frank Algernon Cowperwood emerged from the Eastern District +Penitentiary in Philadelphia he realized that the old life he had +lived in that city since boyhood was ended. His youth was gone, +and with it had been lost the great business prospects of his +earlier manhood. He must begin again. + +It would be useless to repeat how a second panic following upon a +tremendous failure--that of Jay Cooke & Co.--had placed a second +fortune in his hands. This restored wealth softened him in some +degree. Fate seemed to have his personal welfare in charge. He +was sick of the stock-exchange, anyhow, as a means of livelihood, +and now decided that he would leave it once and for all. He would +get in something else--street-railways, land deals, some of the +boundless opportunities of the far West. Philadelphia was no +longer pleasing to him. Though now free and rich, he was still a +scandal to the pretenders, and the financial and social world was +not prepared to accept him. He must go his way alone, unaided, +or only secretly so, while his quondam friends watched his career +from afar. So, thinking of this, he took the train one day, his +charming mistress, now only twenty-six, coming to the station to +see him off. He looked at her quite tenderly, for she was the +quintessence of a certain type of feminine beauty. + +"By-by, dearie," he smiled, as the train-bell signaled the approaching +departure. "You and I will get out of this shortly. Don't grieve. +I'll be back in two or three weeks, or I'll send for you. I'd +take you now, only I don't know how that country is out there. +We'll fix on some place, and then you watch me settle this fortune +question. We'll not live under a cloud always. I'll get a divorce, +and we'll marry, and things will come right with a bang. Money +will do that." + +He looked at her with his large, cool, penetrating eyes, and she +clasped his cheeks between her hands. + +"Oh, Frank," she exclaimed, "I'll miss you so! You're all I have." + +"In two weeks," he smiled, as the train began to move, "I'll wire +or be back. Be good, sweet." + +She followed him with adoring eyes--a fool of love, a spoiled +child, a family pet, amorous, eager, affectionate, the type so +strong a man would naturally like--she tossed her pretty red gold +head and waved him a kiss. Then she walked away with rich, sinuous, +healthy strides--the type that men turn to look after. + +"That's her--that's that Butler girl," observed one railroad clerk +to another. "Gee! a man wouldn't want anything better than that, +would he?" + +It was the spontaneous tribute that passion and envy invariably +pay to health and beauty. On that pivot swings the world. + +Never in all his life until this trip had Cowperwood been farther +west than Pittsburg. His amazing commercial adventures, brilliant +as they were, had been almost exclusively confined to the dull, +staid world of Philadelphia, with its sweet refinement in sections, +its pretensions to American social supremacy, its cool arrogation +of traditional leadership in commercial life, its history, +conservative wealth, unctuous respectability, and all the tastes +and avocations which these imply. He had, as he recalled, almost +mastered that pretty world and made its sacred precincts his own +when the crash came. Practically he had been admitted. Now he +was an Ishmael, an ex-convict, albeit a millionaire. But wait! +The race is to the swift, he said to himself over and over. Yes, +and the battle is to the strong. He would test whether the world +would trample him under foot or no. + +Chicago, when it finally dawned on him, came with a rush on the +second morning. He had spent two nights in the gaudy Pullman then +provided--a car intended to make up for some of the inconveniences +of its arrangements by an over-elaboration of plush and tortured +glass--when the first lone outposts of the prairie metropolis began +to appear. The side-tracks along the road-bed over which he was +speeding became more and more numerous, the telegraph-poles more +and more hung with arms and strung smoky-thick with wires. In the +far distance, cityward, was, here and there, a lone working-man's +cottage, the home of some adventurous soul who had planted his +bare hut thus far out in order to reap the small but certain +advantage which the growth of the city would bring. + +The land was flat--as flat as a table--with a waning growth of +brown grass left over from the previous year, and stirring faintly +in the morning breeze. Underneath were signs of the new green--the +New Year's flag of its disposition. For some reason a crystalline +atmosphere enfolded the distant hazy outlines of the city, holding +the latter like a fly in amber and giving it an artistic subtlety +which touched him. Already a devotee of art, ambitious for +connoisseurship, who had had his joy, training, and sorrow out of +the collection he had made and lost in Philadelphia, he appreciated +almost every suggestion of a delightful picture in nature. + +The tracks, side by side, were becoming more and more numerous. +Freight-cars were assembled here by thousands from all parts of +the country--yellow, red, blue, green, white. (Chicago, he recalled, +already had thirty railroads terminating here, as though it were +the end of the world.) The little low one and two story houses, +quite new as to wood, were frequently unpainted and already smoky +--in places grimy. At grade-crossings, where ambling street-cars +and wagons and muddy-wheeled buggies waited, he noted how flat the +streets were, how unpaved, how sidewalks went up and down +rhythmically--here a flight of steps, a veritable platform before +a house, there a long stretch of boards laid flat on the mud of +the prairie itself. What a city! Presently a branch of the filthy, +arrogant, self-sufficient little Chicago River came into view, +with its mass of sputtering tugs, its black, oily water, its tall, +red, brown, and green grain-elevators, its immense black coal-pockets +and yellowish-brown lumber-yards. + +Here was life; he saw it at a flash. Here was a seething city in +the making. There was something dynamic in the very air which +appealed to his fancy. How different, for some reason, from +Philadelphia! That was a stirring city, too. He had thought it +wonderful at one time, quite a world; but this thing, while obviously +infinitely worse, was better. It was more youthful, more hopeful. +In a flare of morning sunlight pouring between two coal-pockets, +and because the train had stopped to let a bridge swing and half +a dozen great grain and lumber boats go by--a half-dozen in either +direction--he saw a group of Irish stevedores idling on the bank +of a lumber-yard whose wall skirted the water. Healthy men they +were, in blue or red shirt-sleeves, stout straps about their waists, +short pipes in their mouths, fine, hardy, nutty-brown specimens +of humanity. Why were they so appealing, he asked himself. This +raw, dirty town seemed naturally to compose itself into stirring +artistic pictures. Why, it fairly sang! The world was young here. +Life was doing something new. Perhaps he had better not go on +to the Northwest at all; he would decide that question later. + +In the mean time he had letters of introduction to distinguished +Chicagoans, and these he would present. He wanted to talk to some +bankers and grain and commission men. The stock-exchange of Chicago +interested him, for the intricacies of that business he knew +backward and forward, and some great grain transactions had been +made here. + +The train finally rolled past the shabby backs of houses into a +long, shabbily covered series of platforms--sheds having only +roofs--and amidst a clatter of trucks hauling trunks, and engines +belching steam, and passengers hurrying to and fro he made his way +out into Canal Street and hailed a waiting cab--one of a long line +of vehicles that bespoke a metropolitan spirit. He had fixed on +the Grand Pacific as the most important hotel--the one with the +most social significance--and thither he asked to be driven. On +the way he studied these streets as in the matter of art he would +have studied a picture. The little yellow, blue, green, white, +and brown street-cars which he saw trundling here and there, the +tired, bony horses, jingling bells at their throats, touched him. +They were flimsy affairs, these cars, merely highly varnished +kindling-wood with bits of polished brass and glass stuck about +them, but he realized what fortunes they portended if the city +grew. Street-cars, he knew, were his natural vocation. Even more +than stock-brokerage, even more than banking, even more than +stock-organization he loved the thought of street-cars and the +vast manipulative life it suggested. + + + + +Chapter II + + + +A Reconnoiter + +The city of Chicago, with whose development the personality of +Frank Algernon Cowperwood was soon to be definitely linked! To +whom may the laurels as laureate of this Florence of the West yet +fall? This singing flame of a city, this all America, this poet +in chaps and buckskin, this rude, raw Titan, this Burns of a city! +By its shimmering lake it lay, a king of shreds and patches, a +maundering yokel with an epic in its mouth, a tramp, a hobo among +cities, with the grip of Caesar in its mind, the dramatic force +of Euripides in its soul. A very bard of a city this, singing of +high deeds and high hopes, its heavy brogans buried deep in the +mire of circumstance. Take Athens, oh, Greece! Italy, do you keep +Rome! This was the Babylon, the Troy, the Nineveh of a younger +day. Here came the gaping West and the hopeful East to see. Here +hungry men, raw from the shops and fields, idyls and romances in +their minds, builded them an empire crying glory in the mud. + +From New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine had come a strange +company, earnest, patient, determined, unschooled in even the +primer of refinement, hungry for something the significance of +which, when they had it, they could not even guess, anxious to be +called great, determined so to be without ever knowing how. Here +came the dreamy gentleman of the South, robbed of his patrimony; +the hopeful student of Yale and Harvard and Princeton; the +enfranchised miner of California and the Rockies, his bags of gold +and silver in his hands. Here was already the bewildered foreigner, +an alien speech confounding him--the Hun, the Pole, the Swede, the +German, the Russian--seeking his homely colonies, fearing his +neighbor of another race. + +Here was the negro, the prostitute, the blackleg, the gambler, the +romantic adventurer par excellence. A city with but a handful of +the native-born; a city packed to the doors with all the riffraff +of a thousand towns. Flaring were the lights of the bagnio; +tinkling the banjos, zithers, mandolins of the so-called gin-mill; +all the dreams and the brutality of the day seemed gathered to +rejoice (and rejoice they did) in this new-found wonder of a +metropolitan life in the West. + +The first prominent Chicagoan whom Cowperwood sought out was the +president of the Lake City National Bank, the largest financial +organization in the city, with deposits of over fourteen million +dollars. It was located in Dearborn Street, at Munroe, but a block +or two from his hotel. + +"Find out who that man is," ordered Mr. Judah Addison, the president +of the bank, on seeing him enter the president's private waiting-room. + +Mr. Addison's office was so arranged with glass windows that he +could, by craning his neck, see all who entered his reception-room +before they saw him, and he had been struck by Cowperwood's face +and force. Long familiarity with the banking world and with great +affairs generally had given a rich finish to the ease and force +which the latter naturally possessed. He looked strangely replete +for a man of thirty-six--suave, steady, incisive, with eyes as +fine as those of a Newfoundland or a Collie and as innocent and +winsome. They were wonderful eyes, soft and spring-like at times, +glowing with a rich, human understanding which on the instant could +harden and flash lightning. Deceptive eyes, unreadable, but +alluring alike to men and to women in all walks and conditions of +life. + +The secretary addressed came back with Cowperwood's letter of +introduction, and immediately Cowperwood followed. + +Mr. Addison instinctively arose--a thing he did not always do. +"I'm pleased to meet you, Mr. Cowperwood," he said, politely. "I +saw you come in just now. You see how I keep my windows here, so +as to spy out the country. Sit down. You wouldn't like an apple, +would you?" He opened a left-hand drawer, producing several polished +red winesaps, one of which he held out. "I always eat one about +this time in the morning." + +"Thank you, no," replied Cowperwood, pleasantly, estimating as he +did so his host's temperament and mental caliber. "I never eat +between meals, but I appreciate your kindness. I am just passing +through Chicago, and I thought I would present this letter now +rather than later. I thought you might tell me a little about the +city from an investment point of view." + +As Cowperwood talked, Addison, a short, heavy, rubicund man with +grayish-brown sideburns extending to his ear-lobes and hard, bright, +twinkling gray eyes--a proud, happy, self-sufficient man--munched +his apple and contemplated Cowperwood. As is so often the case +in life, he frequently liked or disliked people on sight, and he +prided himself on his judgment of men. Almost foolishly, for one +so conservative, he was taken with Cowperwood--a man immensely his +superior--not because of the Drexel letter, which spoke of the +latter's "undoubted financial genius" and the advantage it would +be to Chicago to have him settle there, but because of the swimming +wonder of his eyes. Cowperwood's personality, while maintaining +an unbroken outward reserve, breathed a tremendous humanness which +touched his fellow-banker. Both men were in their way walking +enigmas, the Philadelphian far the subtler of the two. Addison +was ostensibly a church-member, a model citizen; he represented a +point of view to which Cowperwood would never have stooped. Both +men were ruthless after their fashion, avid of a physical life; +but Addison was the weaker in that he was still afraid--very much +afraid--of what life might do to him. The man before him had no +sense of fear. Addison contributed judiciously to charity, +subscribed outwardly to a dull social routine, pretended to love +his wife, of whom he was weary, and took his human pleasure secretly. +The man before him subscribed to nothing, refused to talk save +to intimates, whom he controlled spiritually, and did as he pleased. + +"Why, I'll tell you, Mr. Cowperwood," Addison replied. "We people +out here in Chicago think so well of ourselves that sometimes we're +afraid to say all we think for fear of appearing a little extravagant. +We're like the youngest son in the family that knows he can lick +all the others, but doesn't want to do it--not just yet. We're +not as handsome as we might be--did you ever see a growing boy +that was?--but we're absolutely sure that we're going to be. Our +pants and shoes and coat and hat get too small for us every six +months, and so we don't look very fashionable, but there are big, +strong, hard muscles and bones underneath, Mr. Cowperwood, as +you'll discover when you get to looking around. Then you won't +mind the clothes so much." + +Mr. Addison's round, frank eyes narrowed and hardened for a moment. +A kind of metallic hardness came into his voice. Cowperwood could +see that he was honestly enamoured of his adopted city. Chicago +was his most beloved mistress. A moment later the flesh about his +eyes crinkled, his mouth softened, and he smiled. "I'll be glad +to tell you anything I can," he went on. "There are a lot of +interesting things to tell." + +Cowperwood beamed back on him encouragingly. He inquired after +the condition of one industry and another, one trade or profession +and another. This was somewhat different from the atmosphere which +prevailed in Philadelphia--more breezy and generous. The tendency +to expatiate and make much of local advantages was Western. He +liked it, however, as one aspect of life, whether he chose to share +in it or not. It was favorable to his own future. He had a prison +record to live down; a wife and two children to get rid of--in the +legal sense, at least (he had no desire to rid himself of financial +obligation toward them). It would take some such loose, enthusiastic +Western attitude to forgive in him the strength and freedom with +which he ignored and refused to accept for himself current convention. +"I satisfy myself" was his private law, but so to do he must assuage +and control the prejudices of other men. He felt that this banker, +while not putty in his hands, was inclined to a strong and useful +friendship. + +"My impressions of the city are entirely favorable, Mr. Addison," +he said, after a time, though he inwardly admitted to himself that +this was not entirely true; he was not sure whether he could bring +himself ultimately to live in so excavated and scaffolded a world +as this or not. "I only saw a portion of it coming in on the train. +I like the snap of things. I believe Chicago has a future." + +"You came over the Fort Wayne, I presume," replied Addison, loftily. +"You saw the worst section. You must let me show you some of the +best parts. By the way, where are you staying?" + +"At the Grand Pacific." + +"How long will you be here?" + +"Not more than a day or two." + +"Let me see," and Mr. Addison drew out his watch. "I suppose you +wouldn't mind meeting a few of our leading men--and we have a +little luncheon-room over at the Union League Club where we drop +in now and then. If you'd care to do so, I'd like to have you +come along with me at one. We're sure to find a few of them--some +of our lawyers, business men, and judges." + +"That will be fine," said the Philadelphian, simply. "You're more +than generous. There are one or two other people I want to meet +in between, and"--he arose and looked at his own watch--"I'll find +the Union Club. Where is the office of Arneel & Co.?" + +At the mention of the great beef-packer, who was one of the bank's +heaviest depositors, Addison stirred slightly with approval. This +young man, at least eight years his junior, looked to him like a +future grand seigneur of finance. + +At the Union Club, at this noontime luncheon, after talking with +the portly, conservative, aggressive Arneel and the shrewd director +of the stock-exchange, Cowperwood met a varied company of men +ranging in age from thirty-five to sixty-five gathered about the +board in a private dining-room of heavily carved black walnut, +with pictures of elder citizens of Chicago on the walls and an +attempt at artistry in stained glass in the windows. There were +short and long men, lean and stout, dark and blond men, with eyes +and jaws which varied from those of the tiger, lynx, and bear to +those of the fox, the tolerant mastiff, and the surly bulldog. +There were no weaklings in this selected company. + +Mr. Arneel and Mr. Addison Cowperwood approved of highly as shrewd, +concentrated men. Another who interested him was Anson Merrill, +a small, polite, recherche soul, suggesting mansions and footmen +and remote luxury generally, who was pointed out by Addison as the +famous dry-goods prince of that name, quite the leading merchant, +in the retail and wholesale sense, in Chicago. + +Still another was a Mr. Rambaud, pioneer railroad man, to whom +Addison, smiling jocosely, observed: "Mr. Cowperwood is on from +Philadelphia, Mr. Rambaud, trying to find out whether he wants to +lose any money out here. Can't you sell him some of that bad land +you have up in the Northwest?" + +Rambaud--a spare, pale, black-bearded man of much force and +exactness, dressed, as Cowperwood observed, in much better taste +than some of the others--looked at Cowperwood shrewdly but in a +gentlemanly, retiring way, with a gracious, enigmatic smile. He +caught a glance in return which he could not possibly forget. The +eyes of Cowperwood said more than any words ever could. Instead +of jesting faintly Mr. Rambaud decided to explain some things about +the Northwest. Perhaps this Philadelphian might be interested. + +To a man who has gone through a great life struggle in one metropolis +and tested all the phases of human duplicity, decency, sympathy, +and chicanery in the controlling group of men that one invariably +finds in every American city at least, the temperament and +significance of another group in another city is not so much, and +yet it is. Long since Cowperwood had parted company with the idea +that humanity at any angle or under any circumstances, climatic +or otherwise, is in any way different. To him the most noteworthy +characteristic of the human race was that it was strangely chemic, +being anything or nothing, as the hour and the condition afforded. +In his leisure moments--those free from practical calculation, +which were not many--he often speculated as to what life really +was. If he had not been a great financier and, above all, a +marvelous organizer he might have become a highly individualistic +philosopher--a calling which, if he had thought anything about +it at all at this time, would have seemed rather trivial. His +business as he saw it was with the material facts of life, or, +rather, with those third and fourth degree theorems and syllogisms +which control material things and so represent wealth. He was +here to deal with the great general needs of the Middle West--to +seize upon, if he might, certain well-springs of wealth and power +and rise to recognized authority. In his morning talks he had +learned of the extent and character of the stock-yards' enterprises, +of the great railroad and ship interests, of the tremendous rising +importance of real estate, grain speculation, the hotel business, +the hardware business. He had learned of universal manufacturing +companies--one that made cars, another elevators, another binders, +another windmills, another engines. Apparently, any new industry +seemed to do well in Chicago. In his talk with the one director +of the Board of Trade to whom he had a letter he had learned that +few, if any, local stocks were dealt in on 'change. Wheat, corn, +and grains of all kinds were principally speculated in. The big +stocks of the East were gambled in by way of leased wires on the +New York Stock Exchange--not otherwise. + +As he looked at these men, all pleasantly civil, all general in +their remarks, each safely keeping his vast plans under his vest, +Cowperwood wondered how he would fare in this community. There +were such difficult things ahead of him to do. No one of these +men, all of whom were in their commercial-social way agreeable, +knew that he had only recently been in the penitentiary. How much +difference would that make in their attitude? No one of them knew +that, although he was married and had two children, he was planning +to divorce his wife and marry the girl who had appropriated to +herself the role which his wife had once played. + +"Are you seriously contemplating looking into the Northwest?" asked +Mr. Rambaud, interestedly, toward the close of the luncheon. + +"That is my present plan after I finish here. I thought I'd take +a short run up there." + +"Let me put you in touch with an interesting party that is going +as far as Fargo and Duluth. There is a private car leaving Thursday, +most of them citizens of Chicago, but some Easterners. I would +be glad to have you join us. I am going as far as Minneapolis." + +Cowperwood thanked him and accepted. A long conversation followed +about the Northwest, its timber, wheat, land sales, cattle, and +possible manufacturing plants. + +What Fargo, Minneapolis, and Duluth were to be civically and +financially were the chief topics of conversation. Naturally, Mr. +Rambaud, having under his direction vast railroad lines which +penetrated this region, was confident of the future of it. +Cowperwood gathered it all, almost by instinct. Gas, street-railways, +land speculations, banks, wherever located, were his chief thoughts. + +Finally he left the club to keep his other appointments, but +something of his personality remained behind him. Mr. Addison and +Mr. Rambaud, among others, were sincerely convinced that he was +one of the most interesting men they had met in years. And he +scarcely had said anything at all--just listened. + + + + +Chapter III + + + +A Chicago Evening + +After his first visit to the bank over which Addison presided, and +an informal dinner at the latter's home, Cowperwood had decided +that he did not care to sail under any false colors so far as +Addison was concerned. He was too influential and well connected. +Besides, Cowperwood liked him too much. Seeing that the man's +leaning toward him was strong, in reality a fascination, he made +an early morning call a day or two after he had returned from +Fargo, whither he had gone at Mr. Rambaud's suggestion, on his way +back to Philadelphia, determined to volunteer a smooth presentation +of his earlier misfortunes, and trust to Addison's interest to +make him view the matter in a kindly light. He told him the whole +story of how he had been convicted of technical embezzlement in +Philadelphia and had served out his term in the Eastern Penitentiary. +He also mentioned his divorce and his intention of marrying again. + +Addison, who was the weaker man of the two and yet forceful in his +own way, admired this courageous stand on Cowperwood's part. It +was a braver thing than he himself could or would have achieved. +It appealed to his sense of the dramatic. Here was a man who +apparently had been dragged down to the very bottom of things, his +face forced in the mire, and now he was coming up again strong, +hopeful, urgent. The banker knew many highly respected men in +Chicago whose early careers, as he was well aware, would not bear +too close an inspection, but nothing was thought of that. Some +of them were in society, some not, but all of them were powerful. +Why should not Cowperwood be allowed to begin all over? He looked +at him steadily, at his eyes, at his stocky body, at his smooth, +handsome, mustached face. Then he held out his hand. + +"Mr. Cowperwood," he said, finally, trying to shape his words +appropriately, "I needn't say that I am pleased with this interesting +confession. It appeals to me. I'm glad you have made it to me. +You needn't say any more at any time. I decided the day I saw you +walking into that vestibule that you were an exceptional man; now +I know it. You needn't apologize to me. I haven't lived in this +world fifty years and more without having my eye-teeth cut. You're +welcome to the courtesies of this bank and of my house as long as +you care to avail yourself of them. We'll cut our cloth as +circumstances dictate in the future. I'd like to see you come to +Chicago, solely because I like you personally. If you decide to +settle here I'm sure I can be of service to you and you to me. +Don't think anything more about it; I sha'n't ever say anything +one way or another. You have your own battle to fight, and I wish +you luck. You'll get all the aid from me I can honestly give you. +Just forget that you told me, and when you get your matrimonial +affairs straightened out bring your wife out to see us." + +With these things completed Cowperwood took the train back to +Philadelphia. + +"Aileen," he said, when these two met again--she had come to the +train to meet him--"I think the West is the answer for us. I went +up to Fargo and looked around up there, but I don't believe we +want to go that far. There's nothing but prairie-grass and Indians +out in that country. How'd you like to live in a board shanty, +Aileen," he asked, banteringly, "with nothing but fried rattlesnakes +and prairie-dogs for breakfast? Do you think you could stand that?" + +"Yes," she replied, gaily, hugging his arm, for they had entered +a closed carriage; "I could stand it if you could. I'd go anywhere +with you, Frank. I'd get me a nice Indian dress with leather and +beads all over it and a feather hat like they wear, and--" + +"There you go! Certainly! Pretty clothes first of all in a miner's +shack. That's the way." + +"You wouldn't love me long if I didn't put pretty clothes first," +she replied, spiritedly. "Oh, I'm so glad to get you back!" + +"The trouble is," he went on, "that that country up there isn't +as promising as Chicago. I think we're destined to live in Chicago. +I made an investment in Fargo, and we'll have to go up there from +time to time, but we'll eventually locate in Chicago. I don't +want to go out there alone again. It isn't pleasant for me." He +squeezed her hand. "If we can't arrange this thing at once I'll +just have to introduce you as my wife for the present." + +"You haven't heard anything more from Mr. Steger?" she put in. +She was thinking of Steger's efforts to get Mrs. Cowperwood to +grant him a divorce. + +"Not a word." + +"Isn't it too bad?" she sighed. + +"Well, don't grieve. Things might be worse." + +He was thinking of his days in the penitentiary, and so was she. +After commenting on the character of Chicago he decided with her +that so soon as conditions permitted they would remove themselves +to the Western city. + +It would be pointless to do more than roughly sketch the period +of three years during which the various changes which saw the +complete elimination of Cowperwood from Philadelphia and his +introduction into Chicago took place. For a time there were merely +journeys to and fro, at first more especially to Chicago, then to +Fargo, where his transported secretary, Walter Whelpley, was +managing under his direction the construction of Fargo business +blocks, a short street-car line, and a fair-ground. This interesting +venture bore the title of the Fargo Construction and Transportation +Company, of which Frank A. Cowperwood was president. His Philadelphia +lawyer, Mr. Harper Steger, was for the time being general master +of contracts. + +For another short period he might have been found living at the +Tremont in Chicago, avoiding for the time being, because of Aileen's +company, anything more than a nodding contact with the important +men he had first met, while he looked quietly into the matter of +a Chicago brokerage arrangement--a partnership with some established +broker who, without too much personal ambition, would bring him a +knowledge of Chicago Stock Exchange affairs, personages, and Chicago +ventures. On one occasion he took Aileen with him to Fargo, where +with a haughty, bored insouciance she surveyed the state of the +growing city. + +"Oh, Frank!" she exclaimed, when she saw the plain, wooden, +four-story hotel, the long, unpleasing business street, with its +motley collection of frame and brick stores, the gaping stretches of +houses, facing in most directions unpaved streets. Aileen in her +tailored spick-and-spanness, her self-conscious vigor, vanity, and +tendency to over-ornament, was a strange contrast to the rugged +self-effacement and indifference to personal charm which characterized +most of the men and women of this new metropolis. "You didn't +seriously think of coming out here to live, did you?" + +She was wondering where her chance for social exchange would come +in--her opportunity to shine. Suppose her Frank were to be very +rich; suppose he did make very much money--much more than he had +ever had even in the past--what good would it do her here? In +Philadelphia, before his failure, before she had been suspected +of the secret liaison with him, he had been beginning (at least) +to entertain in a very pretentious way. If she had been his wife +then she might have stepped smartly into Philadelphia society. +Out here, good gracious! She turned up her pretty nose in disgust. +"What an awful place!" was her one comment at this most stirring +of Western boom towns. + +When it came to Chicago, however, and its swirling, increasing +life, Aileen was much interested. Between attending to many +financial matters Cowperwood saw to it that she was not left alone. +He asked her to shop in the local stores and tell him about them; +and this she did, driving around in an open carriage, attractively +arrayed, a great brown hat emphasizing her pink-and-white complexion +and red-gold hair. On different afternoons of their stay he took +her to drive over the principal streets. When Aileen was permitted +for the first time to see the spacious beauty and richness of +Prairie Avenue, the North Shore Drive, Michigan Avenue, and the +new mansions on Ashland Boulevard, set in their grassy spaces, the +spirit, aspirations, hope, tang of the future Chicago began to +work in her blood as it had in Cowperwood's. All of these rich +homes were so very new. The great people of Chicago were all newly +rich like themselves. She forgot that as yet she was not Cowperwood's +wife; she felt herself truly to be so. The streets, set in most +instances with a pleasing creamish-brown flagging, lined with +young, newly planted trees, the lawns sown to smooth green grass, +the windows of the houses trimmed with bright awnings and hung +with intricate lace, blowing in a June breeze, the roadways a gray, +gritty macadam--all these things touched her fancy. On one drive +they skirted the lake on the North Shore, and Aileen, contemplating +the chalky, bluish-green waters, the distant sails, the gulls, and +then the new bright homes, reflected that in all certitude she +would some day be the mistress of one of these splendid mansions. +How haughtily she would carry herself; how she would dress! They +would have a splendid house, much finer, no doubt, than Frank's +old one in Philadelphia, with a great ball-room and dining-room +where she could give dances and dinners, and where Frank and she +would receive as the peers of these Chicago rich people. + +"Do you suppose we will ever have a house as fine as one of these, +Frank?" she asked him, longingly. + +"I'll tell you what my plan is," he said. "If you like this +Michigan Avenue section we'll buy a piece of property out here now +and hold it. Just as soon as I make the right connections here +and see what I am going to do we'll build a house--something really +nice--don't worry. I want to get this divorce matter settled, and +then we'll begin. Meanwhile, if we have to come here, we'd better +live rather quietly. Don't you think so?" + +It was now between five and six, that richest portion of a summer +day. It had been very warm, but was now cooling, the shade of the +western building-line shadowing the roadway, a moted, wine-like +air filling the street. As far as the eye could see were carriages, +the one great social diversion of Chicago, because there was +otherwise so little opportunity for many to show that they had +means. The social forces were not as yet clear or harmonious. +Jingling harnesses of nickel, silver, and even plated gold were +the sign manual of social hope, if not of achievement. Here sped +homeward from the city--from office and manufactory--along this +one exceptional southern highway, the Via Appia of the South Side, +all the urgent aspirants to notable fortunes. Men of wealth who +had met only casually in trade here nodded to each other. Smart +daughters, society-bred sons, handsome wives came down-town in +traps, Victorias, carriages, and vehicles of the latest design to +drive home their trade-weary fathers or brothers, relatives or +friends. The air was gay with a social hope, a promise of youth +and affection, and that fine flush of material life that recreates +itself in delight. Lithe, handsome, well-bred animals, singly and +in jingling pairs, paced each other down the long, wide, grass-lined +street, its fine homes agleam with a rich, complaisant materiality. + +"Oh!" exclaimed Aileen, all at once, seeing the vigorous, forceful +men, the handsome matrons, and young women and boys, the nodding +and the bowing, feeling a touch of the romance and wonder of it +all. "I should like to live in Chicago. I believe it's nicer +than Philadelphia." + +Cowperwood, who had fallen so low there, despite his immense +capacity, set his teeth in two even rows. His handsome mustache +seemed at this moment to have an especially defiant curl. The +pair he was driving was physically perfect, lean and nervous, with +spoiled, petted faces. He could not endure poor horse-flesh. He +drove as only a horse-lover can, his body bolt upright, his own +energy and temperament animating his animals. Aileen sat beside +him, very proud, consciously erect. + +"Isn't she beautiful?" some of the women observed, as they passed, +going north. "What a stunning young woman!" thought or said the +men. + +"Did you see her?" asked a young brother of his sister. "Never +mind, Aileen," commented Cowperwood, with that iron determination +that brooks no defeat. "We will be a part of this. Don't fret. +You will have everything you want in Chicago, and more besides." + +There was tingling over his fingers, into the reins, into the +horses, a mysterious vibrating current that was his chemical +product, the off-giving of his spirit battery that made his hired +horses prance like children. They chafed and tossed their heads +and snorted. Aileen was fairly bursting with hope and vanity +and longing. Oh, to be Mrs. Frank Algernon Cowperwood here in +Chicago, to have a splendid mansion, to have her cards of invitation +practically commands which might not be ignored! + +"Oh, dear!" she sighed to herself, mentally. "If only it were all +true--now." + +It is thus that life at its topmost toss irks and pains. Beyond +is ever the unattainable, the lure of the infinite with its infinite +ache. + +"Oh, life! oh, youth! oh, hope! oh, years! Oh pain-winged fancy, +beating forth with fears." + + + + +Chapter IV + + + +Peter Laughlin & Co. + +The partnership which Cowperwood eventually made with an old-time +Board of Trade operator, Peter Laughlin, was eminently to his +satisfaction. Laughlin was a tall, gaunt speculator who had spent +most of his living days in Chicago, having come there as a boy +from western Missouri. He was a typical Chicago Board of Trade +operator of the old school, having an Andrew Jacksonish countenance, +and a Henry Clay--Davy Crockett--"Long John" Wentworth build of +body. + +Cowperwood from his youth up had had a curious interest in quaint +characters, and he was interesting to them; they "took" to him. +He could, if he chose to take the trouble, fit himself in with the +odd psychology of almost any individual. In his early peregrinations +in La Salle Street he inquired after clever traders on 'change, +and then gave them one small commission after another in order to +get acquainted. Thus he stumbled one morning on old Peter Laughlin, +wheat and corn trader, who had an office in La Salle Street near +Madison, and who did a modest business gambling for himself and +others in grain and Eastern railway shares. Laughlin was a shrewd, +canny American, originally, perhaps, of Scotch extraction, who had +all the traditional American blemishes of uncouthness, tobacco-chewing, +profanity, and other small vices. Cowperwood could tell from +looking at him that he must have a fund of information concerning +every current Chicagoan of importance, and this fact alone was +certain to be of value. Then the old man was direct, plain-spoken, +simple-appearing, and wholly unpretentious--qualities which +Cowperwood deemed invaluable. + +Once or twice in the last three years Laughlin had lost heavily +on private "corners" that he had attempted to engineer, and the +general feeling was that he was now becoming cautious, or, in other +words, afraid. "Just the man," Cowperwood thought. So one morning +he called upon Laughlin, intending to open a small account with him. + +"Henry," he heard the old man say, as he entered Laughlin's +fair-sized but rather dusty office, to a young, preternaturally +solemn-looking clerk, a fit assistant for Peter Laughlin, "git me +them there Pittsburg and Lake Erie sheers, will you?" Seeing +Cowperwood waiting, he added, "What kin I do for ye?" + +Cowperwood smiled. "So he calls them 'sheers,' does he?" he +thought. "Good! I think I'll like him." + +He introduced himself as coming from Philadelphia, and went on to +say that he was interested in various Chicago ventures, inclined +to invest in any good stock which would rise, and particularly +desirous to buy into some corporation--public utility preferred +--which would be certain to grow with the expansion of the city. + +Old Laughlin, who was now all of sixty years of age, owned a seat +on the Board, and was worth in the neighborhood of two hundred +thousand dollars, looked at Cowperwood quizzically. + +"Well, now, if you'd 'a' come along here ten or fifteen years ago +you might 'a' got in on the ground floor of a lot of things," he +observed. "There was these here gas companies, now, that them +Otway and Apperson boys got in on, and then all these here +street-railways. Why, I'm the feller that told Eddie Parkinson +what a fine thing he could make out of it if he would go and +organize that North State Street line. He promised me a bunch of +sheers if he ever worked it out, but he never give 'em to me. I +didn't expect him to, though," he added, wisely, and with a glint. +"I'm too old a trader for that. He's out of it now, anyway. That +Michaels-Kennelly crowd skinned him. Yep, if you'd 'a' been here +ten or fifteen years ago you might 'a' got in on that. 'Tain't +no use a-thinkin' about that, though, any more. Them sheers is +sellin' fer clost onto a hundred and sixty." + +Cowperwood smiled. "Well, Mr. Laughlin," he observed, "you must +have been on 'change a long time here. You seem to know a good +deal of what has gone on in the past." + +Yep, ever since 1852," replied the old man. He had a thick growth +of upstanding hair looking not unlike a rooster's comb, a long and +what threatened eventually to become a Punch-and-Judy chin, a +slightly aquiline nose, high cheek-bones, and hollow, brown-skinned +cheeks. His eyes were as clear and sharp as those of a lynx. + +"To tell you the truth, Mr. Laughlin," went on Cowperwood, "what +I'm really out here in Chicago for is to find a man with whom I +can go into partnership in the brokerage business. Now I'm in the +banking and brokerage business myself in the East. I have a firm +in Philadelphia and a seat on both the New York and Philadelphia +exchanges. I have some affairs in Fargo also. Any trade agency +can tell you about me. You have a Board of Trade seat here, and +no doubt you do some New York and Philadelphia exchange business. +The new firm, if you would go in with me, could handle it all +direct. I'm a rather strong outside man myself. I'm thinking of +locating permanently in Chicago. What would you say now to going +into business with me? Do you think we could get along in the same +office space?" + +Cowperwood had a way, when he wanted to be pleasant, of beating +the fingers of his two hands together, finger for finger, tip for +tip. He also smiled at the same time--or, rather, beamed--his +eyes glowing with a warm, magnetic, seemingly affectionate light. + +As it happened, old Peter Laughlin had arrived at that psychological +moment when he was wishing that some such opportunity as this might +appear and be available. He was a lonely man, never having been +able to bring himself to trust his peculiar temperament in the +hands of any woman. As a matter of fact, he had never understood +women at all, his relations being confined to those sad immoralities +of the cheapest character which only money--grudgingly given, at +that--could buy. He lived in three small rooms in West Harrison +Street, near Throup, where he cooked his own meals at times. His +one companion was a small spaniel, simple and affectionate, a she +dog, Jennie by name, with whom he slept. Jennie was a docile, +loving companion, waiting for him patiently by day in his office +until he was ready to go home at night. He talked to this spaniel +quite as he would to a human being (even more intimately, perhaps), +taking the dog's glances, tail-waggings, and general movements for +answer. In the morning when he arose, which was often as early +as half past four, or even four--he was a brief sleeper--he would +begin by pulling on his trousers (he seldom bathed any more except +at a down-town barber shop) and talking to Jennie. + +"Git up, now, Jinnie," he would say. "It's time to git up. We've +got to make our coffee now and git some breakfast. I can see yuh, +lyin' there, pertendin' to be asleep. Come on, now! You've had +sleep enough. You've been sleepin' as long as I have." + +Jennie would be watching him out of the corner of one loving eye, +her tail tap-tapping on the bed, her free ear going up and down. + +When he was fully dressed, his face and hands washed, his old +string tie pulled around into a loose and convenient knot, his +hair brushed upward, Jennie would get up and jump demonstratively +about, as much as to say, "You see how prompt I am." + +"That's the way," old Laughlin would comment. "Allers last. Yuh +never git up first, do yuh, Jinnie? Allers let yer old man do that, +don't you?" + +On bitter days, when the car-wheels squeaked and one's ears and +fingers seemed to be in danger of freezing, old Laughlin, arrayed +in a heavy, dusty greatcoat of ancient vintage and a square hat, +would carry Jennie down-town in a greenish-black bag along with +some of his beloved "sheers" which he was meditating on. Only +then could he take Jennie in the cars. On other days they would +walk, for he liked exercise. He would get to his office as early +as seven-thirty or eight, though business did not usually begin +until after nine, and remain until four-thirty or five, reading +the papers or calculating during the hours when there were no +customers. Then he would take Jennie and go for a walk or to call +on some business acquaintance. His home room, the newspapers, the +floor of the exchange, his offices, and the streets were his only +resources. He cared nothing for plays, books, pictures, music--and +for women only in his one-angled, mentally impoverished way. His +limitations were so marked that to a lover of character like +Cowperwood he was fascinating--but Cowperwood only used character. +He never idled over it long artistically. + +As Cowperwood suspected, what old Laughlin did not know about +Chicago financial conditions, deals, opportunities, and individuals +was scarcely worth knowing. Being only a trader by instinct, +neither an organizer nor an executive, he had never been able to +make any great constructive use of his knowledge. His gains and +his losses he took with reasonable equanimity, exclaiming over and +over, when he lost: "Shucks! I hadn't orter have done that," and +snapping his fingers. When he won heavily or was winning he munched +tobacco with a seraphic smile and occasionally in the midst of +trading would exclaim: "You fellers better come in. It's a-gonta +rain some more." He was not easy to trap in any small gambling +game, and only lost or won when there was a free, open struggle +in the market, or when be was engineering some little scheme of +his own. + +The matter of this partnership was not arranged at once, although +it did not take long. Old Peter Laughlin wanted to think it over, +although he had immediately developed a personal fancy for Cowperwood. +In a way he was the latter's victim and servant from the start. +They met day after day to discuss various details and terms; +finally, true to his instincts, old Peter demanded a full half +interest. + +"Now, you don't want that much, Laughlin," Cowperwood suggested, +quite blandly. They were sitting in Laughlin's private office +between four and five in the afternoon, and Laughlin was chewing +tobacco with the sense of having a fine, interesting problem before +him. "I have a seat on the New York Stock Exchange," he went on, +"and that's worth forty thousand dollars. My seat on the Philadelphia +exchange is worth more than yours here. They will naturally figure +as the principal assets of the firm. It's to be in your name. +I'll be liberal with you, though. Instead of a third, which would +be fair, I'll make it forty-nine per cent., and we'll call the +firm Peter Laughlin & Co. I like you, and I think you can be of +a lot of use to me. I know you will make more money through me +than you have alone. I could go in with a lot of these silk-stocking +fellows around here, but I don't want to. You'd better decide +right now, and let's get to work. + +Old Laughlin was pleased beyond measure that young Cowperwood +should want to go in with him. He had become aware of late that +all of the young, smug newcomers on 'change considered him an old +fogy. Here was a strong, brave young Easterner, twenty years his +junior, evidently as shrewd as himself--more so, he feared--who +actually proposed a business alliance. Besides, Cowperwood, in +his young, healthy, aggressive way, was like a breath of spring. + +"I ain't keerin' so much about the name," rejoined Laughlin. "You +can fix it that-a-way if you want to. Givin' you fifty-one per +cent. gives you charge of this here shebang. All right, though; +I ain't a-kickin'. I guess I can manage allus to git what's +a-comin' to me. + +"It's a bargain, then," said Cowperwood. "We'll want new offices, +Laughlin, don't you think? This one's a little dark." + +"Fix it up any way you like, Mr. Cowperwood. It's all the same +to me. I'll be glad to see how yer do it." + +In a week the details were completed, and two weeks later the sign +of Peter Laughlin & Co., grain and commission merchants, appeared +over the door of a handsome suite of rooms on the ground floor of +a corner at La Salle and Madison, in the heart of the Chicago +financial district. + +"Get onto old Laughlin, will you?" one broker observed to another, +as they passed the new, pretentious commission-house with its +splendid plate-glass windows, and observed the heavy, ornate bronze +sign placed on either side of the door, which was located exactly +on the corner. "What's struck him? I thought he was almost all +through. Who's the Company?" + +"I don't know. Some fellow from the East, I think." + +"Well, he's certainly moving up. Look at the plate glass, will +you?" + +It was thus that Frank Algernon Cowperwood's Chicago financial +career was definitely launched. + + + + +Chapter V + + + +Concerning A Wife And Family + +If any one fancies for a moment that this commercial move on the +part of Cowperwood was either hasty or ill-considered they but +little appreciate the incisive, apprehensive psychology of the +man. His thoughts as to life and control (tempered and hardened +by thirteen months of reflection in the Eastern District Penitentiary) +had given him a fixed policy. He could, should, and would rule +alone. No man must ever again have the least claim on him save +that of a suppliant. He wanted no more dangerous combinations +such as he had had with Stener, the man through whom he had lost +so much in Philadelphia, and others. By right of financial intellect +and courage he was first, and would so prove it. Men must swing +around him as planets around the sun. + +Moreover, since his fall from grace in Philadelphia he had come +to think that never again, perhaps, could he hope to become socially +acceptable in the sense in which the so-called best society of a +city interprets the phrase; and pondering over this at odd moments, +he realized that his future allies in all probability would not +be among the rich and socially important--the clannish, snobbish +elements of society--but among the beginners and financially strong +men who had come or were coming up from the bottom, and who had +no social hopes whatsoever. There were many such. If through +luck and effort he became sufficiently powerful financially he +might then hope to dictate to society. Individualistic and even +anarchistic in character, and without a shred of true democracy, +yet temperamentally he was in sympathy with the mass more than he +was with the class, and he understood the mass better. Perhaps +this, in a way, will explain his desire to connect himself with a +personality so naive and strange as Peter Laughlin. He had annexed +him as a surgeon selects a special knife or instrument for an +operation, and, shrewd as old Laughlin was, he was destined to be +no more than a tool in Cowperwood's strong hands, a mere hustling +messenger, content to take orders from this swiftest of moving +brains. For the present Cowperwood was satisfied to do business +under the firm name of Peter Laughlin & Co.--as a matter of fact, +he preferred it; for he could thus keep himself sufficiently +inconspicuous to avoid undue attention, and gradually work out one +or two coups by which he hoped to firmly fix himself in the financial +future of Chicago. + +As the most essential preliminary to the social as well as the +financial establishment of himself and Aileen in Chicago, Harper +Steger, Cowperwood's lawyer, was doing his best all this while to +ingratiate himself in the confidence of Mrs. Cowperwood, who had +no faith in lawyers any more than she had in her recalcitrant +husband. She was now a tall, severe, and rather plain woman, but +still bearing the marks of the former passive charm that had once +interested Cowperwood. Notable crows'-feet had come about the +corners of her nose, mouth, and eyes. She had a remote, censorious, +subdued, self-righteous, and even injured air. + +The cat-like Steger, who had all the graceful contemplative air +of a prowling Tom, was just the person to deal with her. A more +suavely cunning and opportunistic soul never was. His motto might +well have been, speak softly and step lightly. + +"My dear Mrs. Cowperwood," he argued, seated in her modest West +Philadelphia parlor one spring afternoon, "I need not tell you +what a remarkable man your husband is, nor how useless it is to +combat him. Admitting all his faults--and we can agree, if you +please, that they are many"--Mrs. Cowperwood stirred with +irritation--"still it is not worth while to attempt to hold him +to a strict account. You know"--and Mr. Steger opened his thin, +artistic hands in a deprecatory way--"what sort of a man Mr. +Cowperwood is, and whether he can be coerced or not. He is not +an ordinary man, Mrs. Cowperwood. No man could have gone through +what he has and be where he is to-day, and be an average man. If +you take my advice you will let him go his way. Grant him a +divorce. He is willing, even anxious to make a definite provision +for you and your children. He will, I am sure, look liberally +after their future. But he is becoming very irritable over your +unwillingness to give him a legal separation, and unless you do +I am very much afraid that the whole matter will be thrown into +the courts. If, before it comes to that, I could effect an +arrangement agreeable to you, I would be much pleased. As you +know, I have been greatly grieved by the whole course of your +recent affairs. I am intensely sorry that things are as they are." + +Mr. Steger lifted his eyes in a very pained, deprecatory way. He +regretted deeply the shifty currents of this troubled world. + +Mrs. Cowperwood for perhaps the fifteenth or twentieth time heard +him to the end in patience. Cowperwood would not return. Steger +was as much her friend as any other lawyer would be. Besides, he +was socially agreeable to her. Despite his Machiavellian profession, +she half believed him. He went over, tactfully, a score of +additional points. Finally, on the twenty-first visit, and with +seemingly great distress, he told her that her husband had decided +to break with her financially, to pay no more bills, and do nothing +until his responsibility had been fixed by the courts, and that +he, Steger, was about to retire from the case. Mrs. Cowperwood +felt that she must yield; she named her ultimatum. If he would +fix two hundred thousand dollars on her and the children (this was +Cowperwood's own suggestion) and later on do something commercially +for their only son, Frank, junior, she would let him go. She +disliked to do it. She knew that it meant the triumph of Aileen +Butler, such as it was. But, after all, that wretched creature +had been properly disgraced in Philadelphia. It was not likely +she could ever raise her head socially anywhere any more. She +agreed to file a plea which Steger would draw up for her, and by +that oily gentleman's machinations it was finally wormed through +the local court in the most secret manner imaginable. The merest +item in three of the Philadelphia papers some six weeks later +reported that a divorce had been granted. When Mrs. Cowperwood +read it she wondered greatly that so little attention had been +attracted by it. She had feared a much more extended comment. +She little knew the cat-like prowlings, legal and journalistic, +of her husband's interesting counsel. When Cowperwood read it on +one of his visits to Chicago he heaved a sigh of relief. At last +it was really true. Now he could make Aileen his wife. He +telegraphed her an enigmatic message of congratulation. When +Aileen read it she thrilled from head to foot. Now, shortly, she +would become the legal bride of Frank Algernon Cowperwood, the +newly enfranchised Chicago financier, and then-- + +"Oh," she said, in her Philadelphia home, when she read it, "isn't +that splendid! Now I'll be Mrs. Cowperwood. Oh, dear!" + +Mrs. Frank Algernon Cowperwood number one, thinking over her +husband's liaison, failure, imprisonment, pyrotechnic operations +at the time of the Jay Cooke failure, and his present financial +ascendancy, wondered at the mystery of life. There must be a God. +The Bible said so. Her husband, evil though he was, could not +be utterly bad, for he had made ample provision for her, and the +children liked him. Certainly, at the time of the criminal +prosecution he was no worse than some others who had gone free. +Yet he had been convicted, and she was sorry for that and had +always been. He was an able and ruthless man. She hardly knew +what to think. The one person she really did blame was the wretched, +vain, empty-headed, ungodly Aileen Butler, who had been his +seductress and was probably now to be his wife. God would punish +her, no doubt. He must. So she went to church on Sundays and +tried to believe, come what might, that all was for the best. + + + + +Chapter VI + + + +The New Queen of the Home + +The day Cowperwood and Aileen were married--it was in an obscure +village called Dalston, near Pittsburg, in western Pennsylvania, +where they had stopped off to manage this matter--he had said to +her: "I want to tell you, dear, that you and I are really beginning +life all over. Now it depends on how well we play this game as +to how well we succeed. If you will listen to me we won't try to +do anything much socially in Chicago for the present. Of course +we'll have to meet a few people. That can't be avoided. Mr. and +Mrs. Addison are anxious to meet you, and I've delayed too long +in that matter as it is. But what I mean is that I don't believe +it's advisable to push this social exchange too far. People are +sure to begin to make inquiries if we do. My plan is to wait a +little while and then build a really fine house so that we won't +need to rebuild. We're going to go to Europe next spring, if +things go right, and we may get some ideas over there. I'm going +to put in a good big gallery," he concluded. "While we're traveling +we might as well see what we can find in the way of pictures and +so on." + +Aileen was thrilling with anticipation. "Oh, Frank," she said to +him, quite ecstatically, "you're so wonderful! You do everything +you want, don't you?" + +"Not quite," he said, deprecatingly; "but it isn't for not wanting +to. Chance has a little to say about some of these chings, Aileen." + +She stood in front of him, as she often did, her plump, ringed +hands on his shoulders, and looked into those steady, lucid +pools--his eyes. Another man, less leonine, and with all his +shifting thoughts, might have had to contend with the handicap of +a shifty gaze; he fronted the queries and suspicions of the world +with a seeming candor that was as disarming as that of a child. +The truth was he believed in himself, and himself only, and thence +sprang his courage to think as he pleased. Aileen wondered, but +could get no answer. + +"Oh, you big tiger!" she said. "You great, big lion! Boo!" + +He pinched her cheek and smiled. "Poor Aileen!" he thought. She +little knew the unsolvable mystery that he was even to himself--to +himself most of all. + +Immediately after their marriage Cowperwood and Aileen journeyed +to Chicago direct, and took the best rooms that the Tremont provided, +for the time being. A little later they heard of a comparatively +small furnished house at Twenty-third and Michigan Avenue, which, +with horses and carriages thrown in, was to be had for a season +or two on lease. They contracted for it at once, installing a +butler, servants, and the general service of a well-appointed home. +Here, because he thought it was only courteous, and not because he +thought it was essential or wise at this time to attempt a social +onslaught, he invited the Addisons and one or two others whom he +felt sure would come--Alexander Rambaud, president of the Chicago +& Northwestern, and his wife, and Taylor Lord, an architect whom +he had recently called into consultation and whom he found socially +acceptable. Lord, like the Addisons, was in society, but only as +a minor figure. + +Trust Cowperwood to do the thing as it should be done. The place +they had leased was a charming little gray-stone house, with a neat +flight of granite, balustraded steps leading up to its wide-arched +door, and a judicious use of stained glass to give its interior +an artistically subdued atmosphere. Fortunately, it was furnished +in good taste. Cowperwood turned over the matter of the dinner +to a caterer and decorator. Aileen had nothing to do but dress, +and wait, and look her best. + +"I needn't tell you," he said, in the morning, on leaving, "that +I want you to look nice to-night, pet. I want the Addisons and +Mr. Rambaud to like you." + +A hint was more than sufficient for Aileen, though really it was +not needed. On arriving at Chicago she had sought and discovered +a French maid. Although she had brought plenty of dresses from +Philadelphia, she had been having additional winter costumes +prepared by the best and most expensive mistress of the art in +Chicago--Theresa Donovan. Only the day before she had welcomed +home a golden-yellow silk under heavy green lace, which, with her +reddish-gold hair and her white arms and neck, seemed to constitute +an unusual harmony. Her boudoir on the night of the dinner presented +a veritable riot of silks, satins, laces, lingerie, hair ornaments, +perfumes, jewels--anything and everything which might contribute +to the feminine art of being beautiful. Once in the throes of a +toilet composition, Aileen invariably became restless and energetic, +almost fidgety, and her maid, Fadette, was compelled to move quickly. +Fresh from her bath, a smooth, ivory Venus, she worked quickly +through silken lingerie, stockings and shoes, to her hair. Fadette +had an idea to suggest for the hair. Would Madame let her try a +new swirl she had seen? Madame would--yes. So there were movings +of her mass of rich glinting tresses this way and that. Somehow +it would not do. A braided effect was then tried, and instantly +discarded; finally a double looping, without braids, low over the +forehead, caught back with two dark-green bands, crossing like an +X above the center of her forehead and fastened with a diamond +sunburst, served admirably. In her filmy, lacy boudoir costumeof +pink silk Aileen stood up and surveyed herself in the full-length +mirror. + +"Yes," she said, turning her head this way and that. + +Then came the dress from Donovan's, rustling and crisping. She +slipped into it wonderingly, critically, while Fadette worked at +the back, the arms, about her knees, doing one little essential +thing after another. + +"Oh, Madame!" she exclaimed. "Oh, charmant! Ze hair, it go weeth +it perfect. It ees so full, so beyutiful here"--she pointed to +the hips, where the lace formed a clinging basque. "Oh, tees +varee, varee nize." + +Aileen glowed, but with scarcely a smile. She was concerned. It +wasn't so much her toilet, which must be everything that it should +be--but this Mr. Addison, who was so rich and in society, and Mr. +Rambaud, who was very powerful, Frank said, must like her. It was +the necessity to put her best foot forward now that was really +troubling her. She must interest these men mentally, perhaps, as +well as physically, and with social graces, and that was not so +easy. For all her money and comfort in Philadelphia she had never +been in society in its best aspects, had never done social +entertaining of any real importance. Frank was the most important +man who had ever crossed her path. No doubt Mr. Rambaud had a +severe, old-fashioned wife. How would she talk to her? And Mrs. +Addison! She would know and see everything. Aileen almost talked +out loud to herself in a consoling way as she dressed, so strenuous +were her thoughts; but she went on, adding the last touches to her +physical graces. + +When she finally went down-stairs to see how the dining and reception +rooms looked, and Fadette began putting away the welter of discarded +garments--she was a radiant vision--a splendid greenish-gold figure, +with gorgeous hair, smooth, soft, shapely ivory arms, a splendid +neck and bust, and a swelling form. She felt beautiful, and yet +she was a little nervous--truly. Frank himself would be critical. +She went about looking into the dining-room, which, by the caterer's +art, had been transformed into a kind of jewel-box glowing with +flowers, silver, gold, tinted glass, and the snowy whiteness of +linen. It reminded her of an opal flashing all its soft fires. +She went into the general reception-room, where was a grand piano +finished in pink and gold, upon which, with due thought to her one +accomplishment--her playing--she had arranged the songs and +instrumental pieces she did best. Aileen was really not a brilliant +musician. For the first time in her life she felt matronly--as +if now she were not a girl any more, but a woman grown, with some +serious responsibilities, and yet she was not really suited to the +role. As a matter of fact, her thoughts were always fixed on the +artistic, social, and dramatic aspects of life, with unfortunately +a kind of nebulosity of conception which permitted no condensation +into anything definite or concrete. She could only be wildly and +feverishly interested. Just then the door clicked to Frank's +key--it was nearing six--and in he came, smiling, confident, a +perfect atmosphere of assurance. + +"Well!" he observed, surveying her in the soft glow of the +reception-room lighted by wall candles judiciously arranged. +"Who's the vision floating around here? I'm almost afraid to touch +you. Much powder on those arms?" + +He drew her into his arms, and she put up her mouth with a sense +of relief. Obviously, he must think that she looked charming. + +"I am chalky, I guess. You'll just have to stand it, though. +You're going to dress, anyhow." + +She put her smooth, plump arms about his neck, and he felt pleased. +This was the kind of a woman to have--a beauty. Her neck was +resplendent with a string of turquoise, her fingers too heavily +jeweled, but still beautiful. She was faintly redolent of hyacinth +or lavender. Her hair appealed to him, and, above all, the rich +yellow silk of her dress, flashing fulgurously through the closely +netted green. + +"Charming, girlie. You've outdone yourself. I haven't seen this +dress before. Where did you get it?" + +"Here in Chicago." + +He lifted her warm fingers, surveying her train, and turned her +about. + +"You don't need any advice. You ought to start a school." + +"Am I all right?" she queried, smartly, but with a sense of +self-distrust for the moment, and all because of him. + +"You're perfect. Couldn't be nicer. Splendid!" + +She took heart. + +"I wish your friends would think so. You'd better hurry." + +He went up-stairs, and she followed, looking first into the +dining-room again. At least that was right. Surely Frank was a +master. + +At seven the plop of the feet of carriage-horses was heard, and a +moment later Louis, the butler, was opening the door. Aileen went +down, a little nervous, a little frigid, trying to think of many +pleasant things, and wondering whether she would really succeed +in being entertaining. Cowperwood accompanied her, a very different +person in so far as mood and self-poise were concerned. To himself +his own future was always secure, and that of Aileen's if he wished +to make it so. The arduous, upward-ascending rungs of the social +ladder that were troubling her had no such significance to him. + +The dinner, as such simple things go, was a success from what might +be called a managerial and pictorial point of view. Cowperwood, +because of his varied tastes and interests, could discuss railroading +with Mr. Rambaud in a very definite and illuminating way; could +talk architecture with Mr. Lord as a student, for instance, of +rare promise would talk with a master; and with a woman like Mrs. +Addison or Mrs. Rambaud he could suggest or follow appropriate +leads. Aileen, unfortunately, was not so much at home, for her +natural state and mood were remote not so much from a serious as +from an accurate conception of life. So many things, except in a +very nebulous and suggestive way, were sealed books to Aileen--merely +faint, distant tinklings. She knew nothing of literature except +certain authors who to the truly cultured might seem banal. As +for art, it was merely a jingle of names gathered from Cowperwood's +private comments. Her one redeeming feature was that she was truly +beautiful herself--a radiant, vibrating objet d'art. A man like +Rambaud, remote, conservative, constructive, saw the place of a +woman like Aileen in the life of a man like Cowperwood on the +instant. She was such a woman as he would have prized himself in +a certain capacity. + +Sex interest in all strong men usually endures unto the end, +governed sometimes by a stoic resignation. The experiment of such +attraction can, as they well know, be made over and over, but to +what end? For many it becomes too troublesome. Yet the presence +of so glittering a spectacle as Aileen on this night touched Mr. +Rambaud with an ancient ambition. He looked at her almost sadly. +Once he was much younger. But alas, he had never attracted the +flaming interest of any such woman. As he studied her now he +wished that he might have enjoyed such good fortune. + +In contrast with Aileen's orchid glow and tinted richness Mrs. +Rambaud's simple gray silk, the collar of which came almost to her +ears, was disturbing--almost reproving--but Mrs. Rambaud's ladylike +courtesy and generosity made everything all right. She came out +of intellectual New England--the Emerson-Thoreau-Channing Phillips +school of philosophy--and was broadly tolerant. As a matter of +fact, she liked Aileen and all the Orient richness she represented. +"Such a sweet little house this is," she said, smilingly. "We've +noticed it often. We're not so far removed from you but what we +might be called neighbors." + +Aileen's eyes spoke appreciation. Although she could not fully +grasp Mrs. Rambaud, she understood her, in a way, and liked her. +She was probably something like her own mother would have been if +the latter had been highly educated. While they were moving into +the reception-room Taylor Lord was announced. Cowperwood took his +hand and brought him forward to the others. + +"Mrs. Cowperwood," said Lord, admiringly--a tall, rugged, thoughtful +person--"let me be one of many to welcome you to Chicago. After +Philadelphia you will find some things to desire at first, but we +all come to like it eventually." + +"Oh, I'm sure I shall," smiled Aileen. + +"I lived in Philadelphia years ago, but only for a little while," +added Lord. "I left there to come here." + +The observation gave Aileen the least pause, but she passed it +over lightly. This sort of accidental reference she must learn +to expect; there might be much worse bridges to cross. + +"I find Chicago all right," she replied, briskly. "There's nothing +the matter with it. It has more snap than Philadelphia ever had." + +"I'm glad to hear you say that. I like it so much. Perhaps it's +because I find such interesting things to do here." + +He was admiring the splendor of her arms and hair. What need had +beautiful woman to be intellectual, anyhow, he was saying to +himself, sensing that Aileen might be deficient in ultimate +refinement. + +Once more an announcement from the butler, and now Mr. and Mrs. +Addison entered. Addison was not at all concerned over coming +here--liked the idea of it; his own position and that of his wife +in Chicago was secure. "How are you, Cowperwood?" he beamed, +laying one hand on the latter's shoulder. "This is fine of you +to have us in to-night. Mrs. Cowperwood, I've been telling your +husband for nearly a year now that he should bring you out here. +Did he tell you?" (Addison had not as yet confided to his wife the +true history of Cowperwood and Aileen.) + +"Yes, indeed," replied Aileen, gaily, feeling that Addison was +charmed by her beauty. "I've been wanting to come, too. It's his +fault that I wasn't here sooner." + +Addison, looking circumspectly at Aileen, said to himself that she +was certainly a stunning-looking woman. So she was the cause of +the first wife's suit. No wonder. What a splendid creature! He +contrasted her with Mrs. Addison, and to his wife's disadvantage. +She had never been as striking, as stand-upish as Aileen, though +possibly she might have more sense. Jove! if he could find a woman +like Aileen to-day. Life would take on a new luster. And yet he +had women--very carefully, very subterraneously. But he had them. + +"It's such a pleasure to meet you," Mrs. Addison, a corpulent, +bejeweled lady, was saying to Aileen. "My husband and yours have +become the best of friends, apparently. We must see more of each +other." + +She babbled on in a puffy social way, and Aileen felt as though +she were getting along swiftly. The butler brought in a great +tray of appetizers and cordials, and put them softly on a remote +table. Dinner was served, and the talk flowed on; they discussed +the growth of the city, a new church that Lord was building ten +blocks farther out; Rambaud told about some humorous land swindles. +It was quite gay. Meanwhile Aileen did her best to become +interested in Mrs. Rambaud and Mrs. Addison. She liked the latter +somewhat better, solely because it was a little easier to talk to +her. Mrs. Rambaud Aileen knew to be the wiser and more charitable +woman, but she frightened her a little; presently she had to fall +back on Mr. Lord's help. He came to her rescue gallantly, talking +of everything that came into his mind. All the men outside of +Cowperwood were thinking how splendid Aileen was physically, how +white were her arms, how rounded her neck and shoulders, how rich +her hair. + + + + +Chapter VII + + + +Chicago Gas + +Old Peter Laughlin, rejuvenated by Cowperwood's electric ideas, +was making money for the house. He brought many bits of interesting +gossip from the floor, and such shrewd guesses as to what certain +groups and individuals were up to, that Cowperwood was able to +make some very brilliant deductions. + +"By Gosh! Frank, I think I know exactly what them fellers are +trying to do," Laughlin would frequently remark of a morning, after +he had lain in his lonely Harrison Street bed meditating the major +portion of the night. "That there Stock Yards gang" (and by gang +he meant most of the great manipulators, like Arneel, Hand, Schryhart +and others) "are after corn again. We want to git long o' that +now, or I miss my guess. What do you think, huh?" + +Cowperwood, schooled by now in many Western subtleties which he +had not previously known, and daily becoming wiser, would as a +rule give an instantaneous decision. + +"You're right. Risk a hundred thousand bushels. I think New York +Central is going to drop a point or two in a few days. We'd better +go short a point." + +Laughlin could never figure out quite how it was that Cowperwood +always seemed to know and was ready to act quite as quickly in +local matters as he was himself. He understood his wisdom concerning +Eastern shares and things dealt in on the Eastern exchange, but +these Chicago matters? + +"Whut makes you think that?" he asked Cowperwood, one day, quite +curiously. + +"Why, Peter," Cowperwood replied, quite simply, "Anton Videra" +(one of the directors of the Wheat and Corn Bank) "was in here +yesterday while you were on 'change, and he was telling me." He +described a situation which Videra had outlined. + +Laughlin knew Videra as a strong, wealthy Pole who had come up in +the last few years. It was strange how Cowperwood naturally got +in with these wealthy men and won their confidence so quickly. +Videra would never have become so confidential with him. + +"Huh!" he exclaimed. "Well, if he says it it's more'n likely so." + +So Laughlin bought, and Peter Laughlin & Co. won. + +But this grain and commission business, while it was yielding a +profit which would average about twenty thousand a year to each +partner, was nothing more to Cowperwood than a source of information. + +He wanted to "get in" on something that was sure to bring very +great returns within a reasonable time and that would not leave +him in any such desperate situation as he was at the time of the +Chicago fire--spread out very thin, as he put it. He had interested +in his ventures a small group of Chicago men who were watching +him--Judah Addison, Alexander Rambaud, Millard Bailey, Anton +Videra--men who, although not supreme figures by any means, had +free capital. He knew that he could go to them with any truly +sound proposition. The one thing that most attracted his attention +was the Chicago gas situation, because there was a chance to step +in almost unheralded in an as yet unoccupied territory; with +franchises once secured--the reader can quite imagine how--he could +present himself, like a Hamilcar Barca in the heart of Spain or a +Hannibal at the gates of Rome, with a demand for surrender and a +division of spoils. + +There were at this time three gas companies operating in the three +different divisions of the city--the three sections, or "sides," +as they were called--South, West, and North, and of these the +Chicago Gas, Light, and Coke Company, organized in 1848 to do +business on the South Side, was the most flourishing and important. +The People's Gas, Light, and Coke Company, doing business on the +West Side, was a few years younger than the South Chicago company, +and had been allowed to spring intoexistence through the foolish +self-confidence of the organizer and directors of the South Side +company, who had fancied that neither the West Side nor the North +Side was going to develop very rapidly for a number of years to +come, and had counted on the city council's allowing them to extend +their mains at any time to these other portions of the city. A +third company, the North Chicago Gas Illuminating Company, had +been organized almost simultaneously with the West Side company +by the same process through which the other companies had been +brought into life--their avowed intention, like that of the West +Side company, being to confine their activities to the sections +from which the organizers presumably came. + +Cowperwood's first project was to buy out and combine the three +old city companies. With this in view he looked up the holders +in all three corporations--their financial and social status. +It was his idea that by offering them three for one, or even four +for one, for every dollar represented by the market value of their +stock he might buy in and capitalize the three companies as one. +Then, by issuing sufficient stock to cover all his obligations, +he would reap a rich harvest and at the same time leave himself +in charge. He approached Judah Addison first as the most available +man to help float a scheme of this kind. He did not want him as +a partner so much as he wanted him as an investor. + +"Well, I'll tell you how I feel about this," said Addison, finally. +"You've hit on a great idea here. It's a wonder it hasn't occurred +to some one else before. And you'll want to keep rather quiet +about it, or some one else will rush in and do it. We have a lot +of venturesome men out here. But I like you, and I'm with you. +Now it wouldn't be advisable for me to go in on this personally +--not openly, anyhow--but I'll promise to see that you get some +of the money you want. I like your idea of a central holding +company, or pool, with you in charge as trustee, and I'm perfectly +willing that you should manage it, for I think you can do it. +Anyhow, that leaves me out, apparently, except as an Investor. +But you will have to get two or three others to help carry this +guarantee with me. Have you any one in mind?" + +"Oh yes," replied Cowperwood. "Certainly. I merely came to you +first." He mentioned Rambaud, Videra, Bailey, and others. + +"They're all right," said Addison, "if you can get them. But I'm +not sure, even then, that you can induce these other fellows to +sell out. They're not investors in the ordinary sense. They're +people who look on this gas business as their private business. +They started it. They like it. They built the gas-tanks and laid +the mains. It won't be easy." + +Cowperwood found, as Addison predicted, that it was not such an +easy matter to induce the various stock-holders and directors in +the old companies to come in on any such scheme of reorganization. +A closer, more unresponsive set of men he was satisfied he had +never met. His offer to buy outright at three or four for one +they refused absolutely. The stock in each case was selling from +one hundred and seventy to two hundred and ten, and intrinsically +was worth more every year, as the city was growing larger and its +need of gas greater. At the same time they were suspicious--one +and all--of any combination scheme by an outsider. Who was he? +Whom did he represent? He could make it clear that he had ample +capital, but not who his backers were. The old officers and +directors fancied that it was a scheme on the part of some of the +officers and directors of one of the other companies to get control +and oust them. Why should they sell? Why be tempted by greater +profits from their stock when they were doing very well as it was? +Because of his newness to Chicago and his lack of connection as +yet with large affairs Cowperwood was eventually compelled to turn +to another scheme--that of organizing new companies in the suburbs +as an entering-wedge of attack upon the city proper. Suburbs +such as Lake View and Hyde Park, having town or village councils +of their own, were permitted to grant franchises to water, gas, +and street-railway companies duly incorporated under the laws of +the state. Cowperwood calculated that if he could form separate +and seemingly distinct companies for each of the villages and +towns, and one general company for the city later, he would be in +a position to dictate terms to the older organizations. It was +simply a question of obtaining his charters and franchises before +his rivals had awakened to the situation. + +The one difficulty was that he knew absolutely nothing of the +business of gas--its practical manufacture and distribution--and +had never been particularly interested init. Street-railroading, +his favorite form of municipal profit-seeking, and one upon which +he had acquired an almost endless fund of specialized information, +offered no present practical opportunity for him here in Chicago. +He meditated on the situation, did some reading on the manufacture +of gas, and then suddenly, as was his luck, found an implement +ready to his hand. + +It appeared that in the course of the life and growth of the South +Side company there had once been a smaller organization founded by +a man by the name of Sippens--Henry De Soto Sippens--who had +entered and actually secured, by some hocus-pocus, a franchise to +manufacture and sell gas in the down-town districts, but who had +been annoyed by all sorts of legal processes until he had finally +been driven out or persuaded to get out. He was now in the +real-estate business in Lake View. Old Peter Laughlin knew him. + +"He's a smart little cuss," Laughlin told Cowperwood. "I thort +onct he'd make a go of it, but they ketched him where his hair was +short, and he had to let go. There was an explosion in his tank +over here near the river onct, an I think he thort them fellers +blew him up. Anyhow, he got out. I ain't seen ner heard sight +of him fer years." + +Cowperwood sent old Peter to look up Mr. Sippens and find out what +he was really doing, and whether he would be interested to get +back in the gas business. Enter, then, a few days later into the +office of Peter Laughlin & Co. Henry De Soto Sippens. He was a +very little man, about fifty years of age; he wore a high, +four-cornered, stiff felt hat, with a short brown business coat +(which in summer became seersucker) and square-toed shoes; he +looked for all the world like a country drug or book store owner, +with perhaps the air of a country doctor or lawyer superadded. +His cuffs protruded too far from his coat-sleeves, his necktie +bulged too far out of his vest, and his high hat was set a little +too far back on his forehead; otherwise he was acceptable, pleasant, +and interesting. He had short side-burns--reddish brown--which +stuck out quite defiantly, and his eyebrows were heavy. + +"Mr. Sippens," said Cowperwood, blandly, "you were once in the gas +manufacturing and distributing business here in Chicago, weren't +you?" + +"I think I know as much about the manufacture of gas as any one," +replied Sippens, almost contentiously. "I worked at it for a +number of years." + +"Well, now, Mr. Sippens, I was thinking that it might be interesting +to start a little gas company in one of these outlying villages +that are growing so fast and see if we couldn't make some money +out of it. I'm not a practical gas man myself, but I thought I +might interest some one who was." He looked at Sippens in a friendly, +estimating way. "I have heard of you as some one who has had +considerable experience in this field here in Chicago. If I should +get up a company of this kind, with considerable backing, do you +think you might be willing to take the management of it?" + +"Oh, I know all about this gas field," Mr. Sippens was about to +say. "It can't be done." But he changed his mind before opening +his lips. "If I were paid enough," he said, cautiously. "I suppose +you know what you have to contend with?" + +"Oh yes," Cowperwood replied, smiling. "What would you consider +'paid enough' to mean?" + +"Oh, if I were given six thousand a year and a sufficient interest +in the company--say, a half, or something like that--I might +consider it," replied Sippens, determined, as he thought, to +frighten Cowperwood off by his exorbitant demands. He was making +almost six thousand dollars a year out of his present business. + +"You wouldn't think that four thousand in several companies--say +up to fifteen thousand dollars--and an interest of about a tenth +in each would be better?" + +Mr. Sippens meditated carefully on this. Plainly, the man before +him was no trifling beginner. He looked at Cowperwood shrewdly +and saw at once, without any additional explanation of any kind, +that the latter was preparing a big fight of some sort. Ten years +before Sippens had sensed the immense possibilities of the gas +business. He had tried to "get in on it," but had been sued, +waylaid, enjoined, financially blockaded, and finally blown up. +He had always resented the treatment he had received, and he had +bitterly regretted his inability to retaliate. He had thought his +days of financial effort were over, but here was a man who was +subtly suggesting a stirring fight, and who was calling him, like +a hunter with horn, to the chase. + +"Well, Mr. Cowperwood," he replied, with less defiance and more +camaraderie, "if you could show me that you have a legitimate +proposition in hand I am a practical gas man. I know all about +mains, franchise contracts, and gas-machinery. I organized and +installed the plant at Dayton, Ohio, and Rochester, New York. I +would have been rich if I had got here a little earlier." The echo +of regret was in his voice. + +"Well, now, here's your chance, Mr. Sippens," urged Cowperwood, +subtly. "Between you and me there's going to be a big new gas +company in the field. We'll make these old fellows step up and +see us quickly. Doesn't that interest you? There'll be plenty of +money. It isn't that that's wanting--it's an organizer, a fighter, +a practical gas man to build the plant, lay the mains, and so on." +Cowperwood rose suddenly, straight and determined--a trick with +him when he wanted to really impress any one. He seemed to radiate +force, conquest, victory. "Do you want to come in?" + +"Yes, I do, Mr. Cowperwood!" exclaimed Sippens, jumping to his +feet, putting on his hat and shoving it far back on his head. He +looked like a chest-swollen bantam rooster. + +Cowperwood took his extended hand. + +"Get your real-estate affairs in order. I'll want you to get me +a franchise in Lake View shortly and build me a plant. I'll give +you all the help you need. I'll arrange everything to your +satisfaction within a week or so. We will want a good lawyer or +two." + +Sippens smiled ecstatically as he left the office. Oh, the wonder +of this, and after ten years! Now he would show those crooks. Now +he had a real fighter behind him--a man like himself. Now, by +George, the fur would begin to fly! Who was this man, anyhow? What +a wonder! He would look him up. He knew that from now on he would +do almost anything Cowperwood wanted him to do. + + + + +Chapter VIII + + + +Now This is Fighting + +When Cowperwood, after failing in his overtures to the three city +gas companies, confided to Addison his plan of organizing rival +companies in the suburbs, the banker glared at him appreciatively. +"You're a smart one!" he finally exclaimed. "You'll do! I back +you to win!" He went on to advise Cowperwood that he would need +the assistance of some of the strong men on the various village +councils. "They're all as crooked as eels' teeth," he went on. +"But there are one or two that are more crooked than others and +safer--bell-wethers. Have you got your lawyer?" + +"I haven't picked one yet, but I will. I'm looking around for the +right man now. + +"Well, of course, I needn't tell you how important that is. There +is one man, old General Van Sickle, who has had considerable +training in these matters. He's fairly reliable." + +The entrance of Gen. Judson P. Van Sickle threw at the very outset +a suggestive light on the whole situation. The old soldier, over +fifty, had been a general of division during the Civil War, and +had got his real start in life by filing false titles to property +in southern Illinois, and then bringing suits to substantiate his +fraudulent claims before friendly associates. He was now a prosperous +go-between, requiring heavy retainers, and yet not over-prosperous. +There was only one kind of business that came to the General--this +kind; and one instinctively compared him to that decoy sheep at +the stock-yards that had been trained to go forth into nervous, +frightened flocks ofits fellow-sheep, balking at being driven into +the slaughtering-pens, and lead them peacefully into the shambles, +knowing enough always to make his own way quietly to the rear +during the onward progress and thus escape. A dusty old lawyer, +this, with Heaven knows what welter of altered wills, broken +promises, suborned juries, influenced judges, bribed councilmen and +legislators, double-intentioned agreements and contracts, and a +whole world of shifty legal calculations and false pretenses +floating around in his brain. Among the politicians, judges, and +lawyers generally, by reason of past useful services, he was +supposed to have some powerful connections. He liked to be called +into any case largely because it meant something to do and kept +him from being bored. When compelled to keep an appointment in +winter, he would slip on an old greatcoat of gray twill that he +had worn until it was shabby, then, taking down a soft felt hat, +twisted and pulled out of shape by use, he would pull it low over +his dull gray eyes and amble forth. In summer his clothes looked +as crinkled as though he had slept in them for weeks. He smoked. +In cast of countenance he was not wholly unlike General Grant, +with a short gray beard and mustache which always seemed more or +less unkempt and hair that hung down over his forehead in a gray +mass. The poor General! He was neither very happy nor very unhappy +--a doubting Thomas without faith or hope in humanity and without +any particular affection for anybody. + +"I'll tell you how it is with these small councils, Mr. Cowperwood," +observed Van Sickle, sagely, after the preliminaries of the first +interview had been dispensed with. + +"They're worse than the city council almost, and that's about as +bad as it can be. You can't do anything without money where these +little fellows are concerned. I don't like to be too hard on men, +but these fellows--" He shook his head. + +"I understand," commented Cowperwood. "They're not very pleasing, +even after you make all allowances." + +"Most of them," went on the General, "won't stay put when you think +you have them. They sell out. They're just as apt as not to run +to this North Side Gas Company and tell them all about the whole +thing before you get well under way. Then you have to pay them +more money, rival bills will be introduced, and all that." The old +General pulled a long face. "Still, there are one or two of them +that are all right," he added, "if you can once get them interested +--Mr. Duniway and Mr. Gerecht." + +"I'm not so much concerned with how it has to be done, General," +suggested Cowperwood, amiably, "but I want to be sure that it will +be done quickly and quietly. I don't want to be bothered with +details. Can it be done without too much publicity, and about +what do you think it is going to cost?" + +"Well, that's pretty hard to say until I look into the matter," +said the General, thoughtfully. "It might cost only four and it +might cost all of forty thousand dollars--even more. I can't tell. +I'd like to take a little time and look into it." The old gentleman +was wondering how much Cowperwood was prepared to spend. + +"Well, we won't bother about that now. I'm willing to be as liberal +as necessary. I've sent for Mr. Sippens, the president of the +Lake View Gas and Fuel Company, and he'll be here in a little +while. You will want to work with him as closely as you can. The +energetic Sippens came after a few moments, and he and Van Sickle, +after being instructed to be mutually helpful and to keep Cowperwood's +name out of all matters relating to this work, departed together. +They were an odd pair--the dusty old General phlegmatic, +disillusioned, useful, but not inclined to feel so; and the smart, +chipper Sippens, determined to wreak a kind of poetic vengeance +on his old-time enemy, the South Side Gas Company, via this seemingly +remote Northside conspiracy. In ten minutes they were hand in +glove, the General describing to Sippens the penurious and +unscrupulous brand of Councilman Duniway's politics and the friendly +but expensive character of Jacob Gerecht. Such is life. + +In the organization of the Hyde Park company Cowperwood, because +he never cared to put all his eggs in one basket, decided to secure +a second lawyer and a second dummy president, although he proposed +to keep De Soto Sippens as general practical adviser for all three +or four companies. He was thinking this matter over when there +appeared on the scene a very much younger man than the old General, +one Kent Barrows McKibben, the only son of ex-Judge Marshall Scammon +McKibben, of the State Supreme Court. Kent McKibben was thirty-three +years old, tall, athletic, and, after a fashion, handsome. He was +not at all vague intellectually--that is, in the matter of the +conduct of his business--but dandified and at times remote. He +had an office in one of the best blocks in Dearborn Street, which +he reached in a reserved, speculative mood every morning at nine, +unless something important called him down-town earlier. It so +happened that he had drawn up the deeds and agreements for the +real-estate company that sold Cowperwood his lots at Thirty-seventh +Street and Michigan Avenue, and when they were ready he journeyed +to the latter's office to ask if there were any additional details +which Cowperwood might want to have taken into consideration. When +he was ushered in, Cowperwood turned to him his keen, analytical +eyes and saw at once a personality he liked. McKibben was just +remote and artistic enough to suit him. He liked his clothes, his +agnostic unreadableness, his social air. McKibben, on his part, +caught the significance of the superior financial atmosphere at +once. He noted Cowperwood's light-brown suit picked out with +strands of red, his maroon tie, and small cameo cuff-links. His +desk, glass-covered, looked clean and official. The woodwork of +the rooms was all cherry, hand-rubbed and oiled, the pictures +interesting steel-engravings of American life, appropriately framed. +The typewriter--at that time just introduced--was in evidence, and +the stock-ticker--also new--was ticking volubly the prices current. +The secretary who waited on Cowperwood was a young Polish girl +named Antoinette Nowak, reserved, seemingly astute, dark, and very +attractive. + +"What sort of business is it you handle, Mr. McKibben?" asked +Cowperwood, quite casually, in the course of the conversation. +And after listening to McKibben's explanation he added, idly: "You +might come and see me some time next week. It is just possible +that I may have something in your line." + +In another man McKibben would have resented this remote suggestion +of future aid. Now, instead, he was intensely pleased. The man +before him gripped his imagination. His remote intellectuality +relaxed. When he came again and Cowperwood indicated the nature +of the work he might wish to have done McKibben rose to the bait +like a fish to a fly. + +"I wish you would let me undertake that, Mr. Cowperwood," he said, +quite eagerly. "It's something I've never done, but I'm satisfied +I can do it. I live out in Hyde Park and know most of the councilmen. +I can bring considerable influence to bear for you." + +Cowperwood smiled pleasantly. + +So a second company, officered by dummies of McKibben's selection, +was organized. De Soto Sippens, without old General Van Sickle's +knowledge, was taken in as practical adviser. An application for +a franchise was drawn up, and Kent Barrows McKibben began silent, +polite work on the South Side, coming into the confidence, by +degrees, of the various councilmen. + +There was still a third lawyer, Burton Stimson, the youngest but +assuredly not the least able of the three, a pale, dark-haired +Romeoish youth with burning eyes, whom Cowperwood had encountered +doing some little work for Laughlin, and who was engaged to work +on the West Side with old Laughlin as ostensible organizer and the +sprightly De Soto Sippens as practical adviser. Stimson was no +mooning Romeo, however, but an eager, incisive soul, born very +poor, eager to advance himself. Cowperwood detected that pliability +of intellect which, while it might spell disaster to some, spelled +success for him. He wanted the intellectual servants. He was +willing to pay them handsomely, to keep them busy, to treat them +with almost princely courtesy, but he must have the utmost loyalty. +Stimson, while maintaining his calm and reserve, could have kissed +the arch-episcopal hand. Such is the subtlety of contact. + +Behold then at once on the North Side, the South Side, the West +Side--dark goings to and fro and walkings up and down in the earth. +In Lake View old General Van Sickle and De Soto Sippens, conferring +with shrewd Councilman Duniway, druggist, and with Jacob Gerecht, +ward boss and wholesale butcher, both of whom were agreeable but +exacting, holding pleasant back-room and drug-store confabs with +almost tabulated details of rewards and benefits. In Hyde Park, +Mr. Kent Barrows McKibben, smug and well dressed, a Chesterfield +among lawyers, and with him one J. J. Bergdoll, a noble hireling, +long-haired and dusty, ostensibly president of the Hyde Park Gas +and Fuel Company, conferring with Councilman Alfred B. Davis, +manufacturer of willow and rattan ware, and Mr. Patrick Gilgan, +saloon-keeper, arranging a prospective distribution of shares, +offering certain cash consideration, lots, favors, and the like. +Observe also in the village of Douglas and West Park on the West +Side, just over the city line, the angular, humorous Peter Laughlin +and Burton Stimson arranging a similar deal or deals. + +The enemy, the city gas companies, being divided into three factions, +were in no way prepared for what was now coming. When the news +finally leaked out that applications for franchises had been made +to the several corporate village bodies each old company suspected +the other of invasion, treachery, robbery. Pettifogging lawyers +were sent, one by each company, to the village council in each +particular territory involved, but no one of the companies had as +yet the slightest idea who was back of it all or of the general +plan of operations. Before any one of them could reasonably +protest, before it could decide that it was willing to pay a very +great deal to have the suburb adjacent to its particular territory +left free, before it could organize a legal fight, councilmanic +ordinances were introduced giving the applying company what it +sought; and after a single reading in each case and one open +hearing, as the law compelled, they were almost unanimously passed. +There were loud cries of dismay from minor suburban papers which +had almost been forgotten in the arrangement of rewards. The large +city newspapers cared little at first, seeing these were outlying +districts; they merely made the comment that the villages were +beginning well, following in the steps of the city council in its +distinguished career of crime. + +Cowperwood smiled as he saw in the morning papers the announcement +of the passage of each ordinance granting him a franchise. He +listened with comfort thereafter on many a day to accounts by +Laughlin, Sippens, McKibben, and Van Sickle of overtures made to +buy them out, or to take over their franchises. He worked on plans +with Sippens looking to the actual introduction of gas-plants. +There were bond issues now to float, stock to be marketed, contracts +for supplies to be awarded, actual reservoirs and tanks to be built, +and pipes to be laid. A pumped-up public opposition had to be +smoothed over. In all this De Soto Sippens proved a trump. With +Van Sickle, McKibben, and Stimson as his advisers in different +sections of the city he would present tabloid propositions to +Cowperwood, to which the latter had merely to bow his head in assent +or say no. Then De Soto would buy, build, and excavate. Cowperwood +was so pleased that he was determined to keep De Soto with him +permanently. De Soto was pleased to think that he was being given +a chance to pay up old scores and to do large things; he was really +grateful. + +"We're not through with those sharpers," he declared to Cowperwood, +triumphantly, one day. "They'll fight us with suits. They may +join hands later. They blew up my gas-plant. They may blow up +ours." + +"Let them blow," said Cowperwood. "We can blow, too, and sue also. +I like lawsuits. We'll tie them up so that they'll beg for +quarter." His eyes twinkled cheerfully. + + + + +Chapter IX + + + +In Search of Victory + +In the mean time the social affairs of Aileen had been prospering +in a small way, for while it was plain that they were not to be +taken up at once--that was not to be expected--it was also plain +that they were not to be ignored entirely. One thing that helped +in providing a nice harmonious working atmosphere was the obvious +warm affection of Cowperwood for his wife. While many might +consider Aileen a little brash or crude, still in the hands of so +strong and capable a man as Cowperwood she might prove available. +So thought Mrs. Addison, for instance, and Mrs. Rambaud. McKibben +and Lord felt the same way. If Cowperwood loved her, as he seemed +to do, he would probably "put her through" successfully. And he +really did love her, after his fashion. He could never forget how +splendid she had been to him in those old days when, knowing full +well the circumstances of his home, his wife, his children, the +probable opposition of her own family, she had thrown over convention +and sought his love. How freely she had given of hers! No petty, +squeamish bickering and dickering here. He had been "her Frank" +from the start, and he still felt keenly that longing in her to +be with him, to be his, which had produced those first wonderful, +almost terrible days. She might quarrel, fret, fuss, argue, +suspect, and accuse him of flirtation with other women; but slight +variations from the norm in his case did not trouble her--at least +she argued that they wouldn't. She had never had any evidence. +She was ready to forgive him anything, she said, and she was, too, +if only he would love her. + +"You devil," she used to say to him, playfully. "I know you. I +can see you looking around. That's a nice stenographer you have +in the office. I suppose it's her." + +"Don't be silly, Aileen," he would reply. "Don't be coarse. You +know I wouldn't take up with a stenographer. An office isn't the +place for that sort of thing." + +"Oh, isn't it? Don't silly me. I know you. Any old place is good +enough for you. + +He laughed, and so did she. She could not help it. She loved him +so. There was no particular bitterness in her assaults. She loved +him, and very often he would take her in his arms, kiss her tenderly, +and coo: "Are you my fine big baby? Are you my red-headed doll? +Do you really love me so much? Kiss me, then." Frankly, pagan +passion in these two ran high. So long as they were not alienated +by extraneous things he could never hope for more delicious human +contact. There was no reaction either, to speak of, no gloomy +disgust. She was physically acceptable to him. He could always +talk to her in a genial, teasing way, even tender, for she did not +offend his intellectuality with prudish or conventional notions. +Loving and foolish as she was in some ways, she would stand blunt +reproof or correction. She could suggest in a nebulous, blundering +way things that would be good for them to do. Most of all at +present their thoughts centered upon Chicago society, the new +house, which by now had been contracted for, and what it would do +to facilitate their introduction and standing. Never did a woman's +life look more rosy, Aileen thought. It was almost too good to +be true. Her Frank was so handsome, so loving, so generous. There +was not a small idea about him. What if he did stray from her at +times? He remained faithful to her spiritually, and she knew as +yet of no single instance in which he had failed her. She little +knew, as much as she knew, how blandly he could lie and protest +in these matters. But he was fond of her just the same, and he +really had not strayed to any extent. + +By now also, Cowperwood had invested about one hundred thousand +dollars in his gas-company speculations, and he was jubilant over +his prospects; the franchises were good for twenty years. By that +time he would be nearly sixty, and he would probably have bought, +combined with, or sold out to the older companies at a great profit. +The future of Chicago was all in his favor. He decided to invest +as much as thirty thousand dollars in pictures, if he could find +the right ones, and to have Aileen's portrait painted while she +was still so beautiful. This matter of art was again beginning +to interest him immensely. Addison had four or five good pictures +--a Rousseau, a Greuze, a Wouverman, and one Lawrence--picked up +Heaven knows where. A hotel-man by the name of Collard, a dry-goods +and real-estate merchant, was said to have a very striking collection. +Addison had told him of one Davis Trask, a hardware prince, who +was now collecting. There were many homes, he knew where art was +beginning to be assembled. He must begin, too. + +Cowperwood, once the franchises had been secured, had installed +Sippens in his own office, giving him charge for the time being. +Small rented offices and clerks were maintained in the region where +practical plant-building was going on. All sorts of suits to +enjoin, annul, and restrain had been begun by the various old +companies, but McKibben, Stimson, and old General Van Sickle were +fighting these with Trojan vigor and complacency. It was a pleasant +scene. Still no one knew very much of Cowperwood's entrance into +Chicago as yet. He was a very minor figure. His name had not +even appeared in connection with this work. Other men were being +celebrated daily, a little to his envy. When would he begin to +shine? Soon, now, surely. So off they went in June, comfortable, +rich, gay, in the best of health and spirits, intent upon enjoying +to the full their first holiday abroad. + +It was a wonderful trip. Addison was good enough to telegraph +flowers to New York for Mrs. Cowperwood to be delivered on shipboard. +McKibben sent books of travel. Cowperwood, uncertain whether +anybody would send flowers, ordered them himself--two amazing +baskets, which with Addison's made three--and these, with attached +cards, awaited them in the lobby of the main deck. Several at the +captain's table took pains to seek out the Cowperwoods. They were +invited to join several card-parties and to attend informal concerts. +It was a rough passage, however, and Aileen was sick. It was hard +to make herself look just nice enough, and so she kept to her room. +She was very haughty, distant to all but a few, and to these careful +of her conversation. She felt herself coming to be a very important +person. + +Before leaving she had almost exhausted the resources of the Donovan +establishment in Chicago. Lingerie, boudoir costumes, walking-costumes, +riding-costumes, evening-costumes she possessed in plenty. She had +a jewel-bag hidden away about her person containing all of thirty +thousand dollars' worth of jewels. Her shoes, stockings, hats, +and accessories in general were innumerable. Because of all this +Cowperwood was rather proud of her. She had such a capacity for +life. His first wife had been pale and rather anemic, while Aileen +was fairly bursting with sheer physical vitality. She hummed and +jested and primped and posed. There are some souls that just are, +without previous revision or introspection. The earth with all +its long past was a mere suggestion to Aileen, dimly visualized +if at all. She may have heard that there were once dinosaurs and +flying reptiles, but if so it made no deep impression on her. +Somebody had said, or was saying, that we were descended from +monkeys, which was quite absurd, though it might be true enough. +On the sea the thrashing hills of green water suggested a kind of +immensity and terror, but not the immensity of the poet's heart. +The ship was safe, the captain at table in brass buttons and blue +uniform, eager to be nice to her--told her so. Her faith really, +was in the captain. And there with her, always, was Cowperwood, +looking at this whole, moving spectacle of life with a suspicious, +not apprehensive, but wary eye, and saying nothing about it. + +In London letters given them by Addison brought several invitations +to the opera, to dinner, to Goodwood for a weekend, and so on. +Carriages, tallyhoes, cabs for riding were invoked. A week-end +invitation to a houseboat on the Thames was secured. Their English +hosts, looking on all this as a financial adventure, good financial +wisdom, were courteous and civil, nothing more. Aileen was intensely +curious. She noted servants, manners, forms. Immediately she +began to think that America was not good enough, perhaps; it wanted +so many things. + +"Now, Aileen, you and I have to live in Chicago for years and +years," commented Cowperwood. "Don't get wild. These people don't +care for Americans, can't you see that? They wouldn't accept us if +we were over here--not yet, anyhow. We're merely passing strangers, +being courteously entertained." Cowperwood saw it all. + +Aileen was being spoiled in a way, but there was no help. She +dressed and dressed. The Englishmen used to look at her in Hyde +Park, where she rode and drove; at Claridges' where they stayed; +in Bond Street, where she shopped. The Englishwomen, the majority +of them remote, ultra-conservative, simple in their tastes, lifted +their eyes. Cowperwood sensed the situation, but said nothing. +He loved Aileen, and she was satisfactory to him, at least for the +present, anyhow, beautiful. If he could adjust her station in +Chicago, that would be sufficient for a beginning. After three +weeks of very active life, during which Aileen patronized the +ancient and honorable glories of England, they went on to Paris. + +Here she was quickened to a child-like enthusiasm. "You know," +she said to Cowperwood, quite solemnly, the second morning, "the +English don't know how to dress. I thought they did, but the +smartest of them copy the French. Take those men we saw last night +in the Cafe d'Anglais. There wasn't an Englishman I saw that +compared with them." + +"My dear, your tastes are exotic," replied Cowperwood, who was +watching her with pleased interest while he adjusted his tie. +"The French smart crowd are almost too smart, dandified. I think +some of those young fellows had on corsets." + +"What of it?" replied Aileen. "I like it. If you're going to be +smart, why not be very smart?" + +"I know that's your theory, my dear," he said, "but it can be +overdone. There is such a thing as going too far. You have to +compromise even if you don't look as well as you might. You can't +be too very conspicuously different from your neighbors, even in +the right direction." + +"You know," she said, stopping and looking at him, "I believe you're +going to get very conservative some day--like my brothers." + +She came over and touched his tie and smoothed his hair. + +"Well, one of us ought to be, for the good of the family," he +commented, half smiling. + +"I'm not so sure, though, that it will be you, either." + +"It's a charming day. See how nice those white-marble statues +look. Shall we go to the Cluny or Versailles or Fontainbleau? +To-night we ought to see Bernhardt at the Francaise." + +Aileen was so gay. It was so splendid to be traveling with her +true husband at last. + +It was on this trip that Cowperwood's taste for art and life and +his determination to possess them revived to the fullest. He made +the acquaintance in London, Paris, and Brussels of the important +art dealers. His conception of great masters and the older schools +of art shaped themselves. By one of the dealers in London, who +at once recognized in him a possible future patron, he was invited +with Aileen to view certain private collections, and here and there +was an artist, such as Lord Leighton, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, or +Whistler, to whom he was introduced casually, an interested stranger. +These men only saw a strong, polite, remote, conservative man. +He realized the emotional, egotistic, and artistic soul. He felt +on the instant that there could be little in common between such +men and himself in so far as personal contact was concerned, yet +there was mutual ground on which they could meet. He could not +be a slavish admirer of anything, only a princely patron. So he +walked and saw, wondering how soon his dreams of grandeur were to +be realized. + +In London he bought a portrait by Raeburn; in Paris a plowing scene +by Millet, a small Jan Steen, a battle piece by Meissonier, and a +romantic courtyard scene by Isabey. Thus began the revival of his +former interest in art; the nucleus of that future collection which +was to mean so much to him in later years. + +On their return, the building of the new Chicago mansion created +the next interesting diversion in the lives of Aileen and Cowperwood. +Because of some chateaux they saw in France that form, or rather +a modification of it as suggested by Taylor Lord, was adopted. Mr. +Lord figured that it would take all of a year, perhaps a year and +a half, to deliver it in perfect order, but time was of no great +importance in this connection. In the mean while they could +strengthen their social connections and prepare for that interesting +day when they should be of the Chicago elite. + +There were, at this time, several elements in Chicago--those who, +having grown suddenly rich from dull poverty, could not so easily +forget the village church and the village social standards; those +who, having inherited wealth, or migrated from the East where +wealth was old, understood more of the savoir faire of the game; +and those who, being newly born into wealth and seeing the drift +toward a smarter American life, were beginning to wish they might +shine in it--these last the very young people. The latter were +just beginning to dream of dances at Kinsley's, a stated Kirmess, +and summer diversions of the European kind, but they had not arrived +as yet. The first class, although by far the dullest and most +bovine, was still the most powerful because they were the richest, +money as yet providing the highest standard. The functions which +these people provided were stupid to the verge of distraction; +really they were only the week-day receptions and Sunday-afternoon +calls of Squeedunk and Hohokus raised to the Nth power. The purpose +of the whole matter was to see and be seen. Novelty in either +thought or action was decidedly eschewed. It was, as a matter of +fact, customariness of thought and action and the quintessence of +convention that was desired. The idea of introducing a "play +actress," for instance, as was done occasionally in the East or +in London--never; even a singer or an artist was eyed askance. +One could easily go too far! But if a European prince should have +strayed to Chicago (which he never did) or if an Eastern social +magnate chanced to stay over a train or two, then the topmost +circle of local wealth was prepared to strain itself to the +breaking-point. Cowperwood had sensed all this on his arrival, +but he fancied that if he became rich and powerful enough he and +Aileen, with their fine house to help them, might well be the +leaven which would lighten the whole lump. Unfortunately, Aileen +was too obviously on the qui vive for those opportunities which +might lead to social recognition and equality, if not supremacy. +Like the savage, unorganized for protection and at the mercy of +the horrific caprice of nature, she was almost tremulous at times +with thoughts of possible failure. Almost at once she had +recognized herself as unsuited temperamentally for association with +certain types of society women. The wife of Anson Merrill, the +great dry-goods prince, whom she saw in one of the down-town stores +one day, impressed her as much too cold and remote. Mrs. Merrill +was a woman of superior mood and education who found herself, in +her own estimation, hard put to it for suitable companionship in +Chicago. She was Eastern-bred-Boston--and familiar in an offhand +way with the superior world of London, which she had visited several +times. Chicago at its best was to her a sordid commercial mess. +She preferred New York or Washington, but she had to live here. +Thus she patronized nearly all of those with whom she condescended +to associate, using an upward tilt of the head, a tired droop of +the eyelids, and a fine upward arching of the brows to indicate +how trite it all was. + +It was a Mrs. Henry Huddlestone who had pointed out Mrs. Merrill +to Aileen. Mrs. Huddlestone was the wife of a soap manufacturer +living very close to the Cowperwoods' temporary home, and she and +her husband were on the outer fringe of society. She had heard +that the Cowperwoods were people of wealth, that they were friendly +with the Addisons, and that they were going to build a +two-hundred-thousand-dollar mansion. (The value of houses always +grows in the telling.) That was enough. She had called, being +three doors away, to leave her card; and Aileen, willing to curry +favor here and there, had responded. Mrs. Huddlestone was a little +woman, not very attractive in appearance, clever in a social way, +and eminently practical. + +"Speaking of Mrs. Merrill," commented Mrs. Huddlestone, on this +particular day, "there she is--near the dress-goods counter. She +always carries that lorgnette in just that way." + +Aileen turned and examined critically a tall, dark, slender woman +of the high world of the West, very remote, disdainful, superior. + +"You don't know her?" questioned Aileen, curiously, surveying her +at leisure. + +"No," replied Mrs. Huddlestone, defensively. "They live on the +North Side, and the different sets don't mingle so much." + +As a matter of fact, it was just the glory of the principal families +that they were above this arbitrary division of "sides," and could +pick their associates from all three divisions. + +"Oh!" observed Aileen, nonchalantly. She was secretly irritated +to think that Mrs. Huddlestone should find it necessary to point +out Mrs. Merrill to her as a superior person. + +"You know, she darkens her eyebrows a little, I think," suggested +Mrs. Huddlestone, studying her enviously. "Her husband, they say, +isn't the most faithful person in the world. There's another +woman, a Mrs. Gladdens, that lives very close to them that he's +very much interested in." + +"Oh!" said Aileen, cautiously. After her own Philadelphia experience +she had decided to be on her guard and not indulge in too much +gossip. Arrows of this particular kind could so readily fly in +her direction. + +"But her set is really much the smartest," complimented Aileen's +companion. + +Thereafter it was Aileen's ambition to associate with Mrs. Anson +Merrill, to be fully and freely accepted by her. She did not know, +although she might have feared, that that ambition was never to +be realized. + +But there were others who had called at the first Cowperwood home, +or with whom the Cowperwoods managed to form an acquaintance. +There were the Sunderland Sledds, Mr. Sledd being general traffic +manager of one of the southwestern railways entering the city, and +a gentleman of taste and culture and some wealth; his wife an +ambitious nobody. There were the Walter Rysam Cottons, Cotton +being a wholesale coffee-broker, but more especially a local social +litterateur; his wife a graduate of Vassar. There were the Norrie +Simmses, Simms being secretary and treasurer of the Douglas Trust +and Savings Company, and a power in another group of financial +people, a group entirely distinct from that represented by Addison +and Rambaud. + +Others included the Stanislau Hoecksemas, wealthy furriers; the +Duane Kingslands, wholesale flour; the Webster Israelses, packers; +the Bradford Candas, jewelers. All these people amounted to +something socially. They all had substantial homes and substantial +incomes, so that they were worthy of consideration. The difference +between Aileen and most of the women involved a difference between +naturalism and illusion. But this calls for some explanation. + +To really know the state of the feminine mind at this time, one +would have to go back to that period in the Middle Ages when the +Church flourished and the industrious poet, half schooled in the +facts of life, surrounded women with a mystical halo. Since that +day the maiden and the matron as well has been schooled to believe +that she is of a finer clay than man, that she was born to uplift +him, and that her favors are priceless. This rose-tinted mist of +romance, having nothing to do with personal morality, has brought +about, nevertheless, a holier-than-thou attitude of women toward +men, and even of women toward women. Now the Chicago atmosphere +in which Aileen found herself was composed in part of this very +illusion. The ladies to whom she had been introduced were of this +high world of fancy. They conceived themselves to be perfect, +even as they were represented in religious art and in fiction. +Their husbands must be models, worthy of their high ideals, and +other women must have no blemish of any kind. Aileen, urgent, +elemental, would have laughed at all this if she could have +understood. Not understanding, she felt diffident and uncertain +of herself in certain presences. + +Instance in this connection Mrs. Norrie Simms, who was a satellite +of Mrs. Anson Merrill. To be invited to the Anson Merrills' for +tea, dinner, luncheon, or to be driven down-town by Mrs. Merrill, +was paradise to Mrs. Simms. She loved to recite the bon mots of +her idol, to discourse upon her astonishing degree of culture, to +narrate how people refused on occasion to believe that she was the +wife of Anson Merrill, even though she herself declared it--those +old chestnuts of the social world which must have had their origin +in Egypt and Chaldea. Mrs. Simms herself was of a nondescript +type, not a real personage, clever, good-looking, tasteful, a +social climber. The two Simms children (little girls) had been +taught all the social graces of the day--to pose, smirk, genuflect, +and the like, to the immense delight of their elders. The nurse +in charge was in uniform, the governess was a much put-upon person. +Mrs. Simms had a high manner, eyes for those above her only, a +serene contempt for the commonplace world in which she had to dwell. + +During the first dinner at which she entertained the Cowperwoods +Mrs. Simms attempted to dig into Aileen's Philadelphia history, +asking if she knew the Arthur Leighs, the Trevor Drakes, Roberta +Willing, or the Martyn Walkers. Mrs. Simms did not know them +herself, but she had heard Mrs. Merrill speak of them, and that +was enough of a handle whereby to swing them. Aileen, quick on +the defense, ready to lie manfully on her own behalf, assured her +that she had known them, as indeed she had--very casually--and +before the rumor which connected her with Cowperwood had been +voiced abroad. This pleased Mrs. Simms. + +"I must tell Nellie," she said, referring thus familiarly to Mrs. +Merrill. + +Aileen feared that if this sort of thing continued it would soon +be all over town that she had been a mistress before she had been +a wife, that she had been the unmentioned corespondent in the +divorce suit, and that Cowperwood had been in prison. Only his +wealth and her beauty could save her; and would they? + +One night they had been to dinner at the Duane Kingslands', and +Mrs. Bradford Canda had asked her, in what seemed a very significant +way, whether she had ever met her friend Mrs. Schuyler Evans, of +Philadelphia. This frightened Aileen. + +"Don't you suppose they must know, some of them, about us?" she +asked Cowperwood, on the way home. + +"I suppose so," he replied, thoughtfully. "I'm sure I don't know. +I wouldn't worry about that if I were you. If you worry about +it you'll suggest it to them. I haven't made any secret of my +term in prison in Philadelphia, and I don't intend to. It wasn't +a square deal, and they had no right to put me there." + +"I know, dear," replied Aileen, "it might not make so much difference +if they did know. I don't see why it should. We are not the only +ones that have had marriage troubles, I'm sure. + +"There's just one thing about this; either they accept us or they +don't. If they don't, well and good; we can't help it. We'll go +on and finish the house, and give them a chance to be decent. If +they won't be, there are other cities. Money will arrange matters +in New York--that I know. We can build a real place there, and +go in on equal terms if we have money enough--and I will have money +enough," he added, after a moment's pondering. "Never fear. I'll +make millions here, whether they want me to or not, and after that +--well, after that, we'll see what we'll see. Don't worry. I +haven't seen many troubles in this world that money wouldn't cure." + +His teeth had that even set that they always assumed when he was +dangerously in earnest. He took Aileen's hand, however, and pressed +it gently. + +"Don't worry," he repeated. "Chicago isn't the only city, and we +won't be the poorest people in America, either, in ten years. +Just keep up your courage. It will all come out right. It's +certain to." + +Aileen looked out on the lamp-lit length of Michigan Avenue, down +which they were rolling past many silent mansions. The tops of +all the lamps were white, and gleamed through the shadows, receding +to a thin point. It was dark, but fresh and pleasant. Oh, if +only Frank's money could buy them position and friendship in this +interesting world; if it only would! She did not quite realize how +much on her own personality, or the lack of it, this struggle +depended. + + + + +Chapter X + + + +A Test + +The opening of the house in Michigan Avenue occurred late in +November in the fall of eighteen seventy-eight. When Aileen and +Cowperwood had been in Chicago about two years. Altogether, between +people whom they had met at the races, at various dinners and teas, +and at receptions of the Union and Calumet Clubs (to which Cowperwood, +through Addison's backing, had been admitted) and those whom +McKibben and Lord influenced, they were able to send invitations +to about three hundred, of whom some two hundred and fifty responded. +Up to this time, owing to Cowperwood's quiet manipulation of his +affairs, there had been no comment on his past--no particular +interest in it. He had money, affable ways, a magnetic personality. +The business men of the city--those whom he met socially--were +inclined to consider him fascinating and very clever. Aileen being +beautiful and graceful for attention, was accepted at more or less +her own value, though the kingly high world knew them not. + +It is amazing what a showing the socially unplaced can make on +occasion where tact and discrimination are used. There was a +weekly social paper published in Chicago at this time, a rather +able publication as such things go, which Cowperwood, with McKibben's +assistance, had pressed into service. Not much can be done under +any circumstances where the cause is not essentially strong; but +where, as in this case, there is a semblance of respectability, +considerable wealth, and great force and magnetism, all things are +possible. Kent McKibben knew Horton Biggers, the editor, who was +a rather desolate and disillusioned person of forty-five, gray, +and depressed-looking--a sort of human sponge or barnacle who was +only galvanized into seeming interest and cheerfulness by sheer +necessity. Those were the days when the society editor was accepted +as a member of society--de facto--and treated more as a guest than +a reporter, though even then the tendency was toward elimination. +Working for Cowperwood, and liking him, McKibben said to Biggers one +evening: + +"You know the Cowperwoods, don't you, Biggers?" + +"No," replied the latter, who devoted himself barnacle-wise to +the more exclusive circles. "Who are they?" + +"Why, he's a banker over here in La Salle Street. They're from +Philadelphia. Mrs. Cowperwood's a beautiful woman--young and all +that. They're building a house out here on Michigan Avenue. You +ought to know them. They're going to get in, I think. The Addisons +like them. If you were to be nice to them now I think they'd +appreciate it later. He's rather liberal, and a good fellow." + +Biggers pricked up his ears. This social journalism was thin +picking at best, and he had very few ways of turning an honest +penny. The would be's and half-in's who expected nice things said +of them had to subscribe, and rather liberally, to his paper. Not +long after this brief talk Cowperwood received a subscription blank +from the business office of the Saturday Review, and immediately +sent a check for one hundred dollars to Mr. Horton Biggers direct. +Subsequently certain not very significant personages noticed that +when the Cowperwoods dined at their boards the function received +comment by the Saturday Review, not otherwise. It looked as though +the Cowperwoods must be favored; but who were they, anyhow? + +The danger of publicity, and even moderate social success, is that +scandal loves a shining mark. When you begin to stand out the +least way in life, as separate from the mass, the cognoscenti wish +to know who, what, and why. The enthusiasm of Aileen, combined +with the genius of Cowperwood, was for making their opening +entertainment a very exceptional affair, which, under the +circumstances, and all things considered, was a dangerous thing +to do. As yet Chicago was exceedingly slow socially. Its movements +were, as has been said, more or less bovine and phlegmatic. To +rush in with something utterly brilliant and pyrotechnic was to +take notable chances. The more cautious members of Chicago society, +even if they did not attend, would hear, and then would come ultimate +comment and decision. + +The function began with a reception at four, which lasted until +six-thirty, and this was followed by a dance at nine, with music +by a famous stringed orchestra of Chicago, a musical programme by +artists of considerable importance, and a gorgeous supper from +eleven until one in a Chinese fairyland of lights, at small tables +filling three of the ground-floor rooms. As an added fillip to +the occasion Cowperwood had hung, not only the important pictures +which he had purchased abroad, but a new one--a particularly +brilliant Gerome, then in the heyday of his exotic popularity--a +picture of nude odalisques of the harem, idling beside the highly +colored stone marquetry of an oriental bath. It was more or less +"loose" art for Chicago, shocking to the uninitiated, though +harmless enough to the illuminati; but it gave a touch of color +to the art-gallery which the latter needed. There was also, newly +arrived and newly hung, a portrait of Aileen by a Dutch artist, +Jan van Beers, whom they had encountered the previous summer at +Brussels. He had painted Aileen in nine sittings, a rather brilliant +canvas, high in key, with a summery, out-of-door world behind +her--a low stone-curbed pool, the red corner of a Dutch brick +palace, a tulip-bed, and a blue sky with fleecy clouds. Aileen +was seated on the curved arm of a stone bench, green grass at her +feet, a pink-and-white parasol with a lacy edge held idly to one +side; her rounded, vigorous figure clad in the latest mode of +Paris, a white and blue striped-silk walking-suit, with a +blue-and-white-banded straw hat, wide-brimmed, airy, shading her +lusty, animal eyes. The artist had caught her spirit quite +accurately, the dash, the assumption, the bravado based on the +courage of inexperience, or lack of true subtlety. A refreshing +thing in its way, a little showy, as everything that related to +her was, and inclined to arouse jealousy in those not so liberally +endowed by life, but fine as a character piece. In the warm glow +of the guttered gas-jets she looked particularly brilliant here, +pampered, idle, jaunty--the well-kept, stall-fed pet of the world. +Many stopped to see, and many were the comments, private and +otherwise. + +This day began with a flurry of uncertainty and worried anticipation +on the part of Aileen. At Cowperwood's suggestion she had employed +a social secretary, a poor hack of a girl, who had sent out all +the letters, tabulated the replies, run errands, and advised on +one detail and another. Fadette, her French maid, was in the +throes of preparing for two toilets which would have to be made +this day, one by two o'clock at least, another between six and +eight. Her "mon dieus" and "par bleus" could be heard continuously +as she hunted for some article of dress or polished an ornament, +buckle, or pin. The struggle of Aileen to be perfect was, as +usual, severe. Her meditations, as to the most becoming gown to +wear were trying. Her portrait was on the east wall in the +art-gallery, a spur to emulation; she felt as though all society +were about to judge her. Theresa Donovan, the local dressmaker, +had given some advice; but Aileen decided on a heavy brown velvet +constructed by Worth, of Paris--a thing of varying aspects, showing +her neck and arms to perfection, and composing charmingly with her +flesh and hair. She tried amethyst ear-rings and changed to topaz; +she stockinged her legs in brown silk, and her feet were shod in +brown slippers with red enamel buttons. + +The trouble with Aileen was that she never did these things with +that ease which is a sure sign of the socially efficient. She +never quite so much dominated a situation as she permitted it to +dominate her. Only the superior ease and graciousness of Cowperwood +carried her through at times; but that always did. When he was +near she felt quite the great lady, suited to any realm. When she +was alone her courage, great as it was, often trembled in the +balance. Her dangerous past was never quite out of her mind. + +At four Kent McKibben, smug in his afternoon frock, his quick, +receptive eyes approving only partially of all this show and effort, +took his place in the general reception-room, talking to Taylor +Lord, who had completed his last observation and was leaving to +return later in the evening. If these two had been closer friends, +quite intimate, they would have discussed the Cowperwoods' social +prospects; but as it was, they confined themselves to dull +conventionalities. At this moment Aileen came down-stairs for a +moment, radiant. Kent McKibben thought he had never seen her look +more beautiful. After all, contrasted with some of the stuffy +creatures who moved about in society, shrewd, hard, bony, calculating, +trading on their assured position, she was admirable. It was a +pity she did not have more poise; she ought to be a little harder +--not quite so genial. Still, with Cowperwood at her side, she +might go far. + +"Really, Mrs. Cowperwood," he said, "it is all most charming. I +was just telling Mr. Lord here that I consider the house a triumph." + +From McKibben, who was in society, and with Lord, another "in" +standing by, this was like wine to Aileen. She beamed joyously. + +Among the first arrivals were Mrs. Webster Israels, Mrs. Bradford +Canda, and Mrs. Walter Rysam Cotton, who were to assist in receiving. +These ladies did not know that they were taking their future +reputations for sagacity and discrimination in their hands; they +had been carried away by the show of luxury of Aileen, the growing +financial repute of Cowperwood, and the artistic qualities of the +new house. Mrs. Webster Israels's mouth was of such a peculiar +shape that Aileen was always reminded of a fish; but she was not +utterly homely, and to-day she looked brisk and attractive. Mrs. +Bradford Canda, whose old rose and silver-gray dress made up in +part for an amazing angularity, but who was charming withal, was +the soul of interest, for she believed this to be a very significant +affair. Mrs. Walter Rysam Cotton, a younger woman than either of +the others, had the polish of Vassar life about her, and was "above" +many things. Somehow she half suspected the Cowperwoods might not +do, but they were making strides, and might possibly surpass all +other aspirants. It behooved her to be pleasant. + +Life passes from individuality and separateness at times to a sort +of Monticelliesque mood of color, where individuality is nothing, +the glittering totality all. The new house, with its charming +French windows on the ground floor, its heavy bands of stone flowers +and deep-sunk florated door, was soon crowded with a moving, +colorful flow of people. + +Many whom Aileen and Cowperwood did not know at all had been invited +by McKibben and Lord; they came, and were now introduced. The +adjacent side streets and the open space in front of the house +were crowded with champing horses and smartly veneered carriages. +All with whom the Cowperwoods had been the least intimate came +early, and, finding the scene colorful and interesting, they +remained for some time. The caterer, Kinsley, had supplied a small +army of trained servants who were posted like soldiers, and carefully +supervised by the Cowperwood butler. The new dining-room, rich +with a Pompeian scheme of color, was aglow with a wealth of glass +and an artistic arrangement of delicacies. The afternoon costumes +of the women, ranging through autumnal grays, purples, browns, and +greens, blended effectively with the brown-tinted walls of the +entry-hall, the deep gray and gold of the general living-room, the +old-Roman red of the dining-room, the white-and-gold of the +music-room, and the neutral sepia of the art-gallery. + +Aileen, backed by the courageous presence of Cowperwood, who, in +the dining-room, the library, and the art-gallery, was holding a +private levee of men, stood up in her vain beauty, a thing to +see--almost to weep over, embodying the vanity of all seeming +things, the mockery of having and yet not having. This parading +throng that was more curious than interested, more jealous than +sympathetic, more critical than kind, was coming almost solely to +observe. + +"Do you know, Mrs. Cowperwood," Mrs. Simms remarked, lightly, "your +house reminds me of an art exhibit to-day. I hardly know why." + +Aileen, who caught the implied slur, had no clever words wherewith +to reply. She was not gifted in that way, but she flared with +resentment. + +"Do you think so?" she replied, caustically. + +Mrs. Simms, not all dissatisfied with the effect she had produced, +passed on with a gay air, attended by a young artist who followed +amorously in her train. + +Aileen saw from this and other things like it how little she was +really "in." The exclusive set did not take either her or Cowperwood +seriously as yet. She almost hated the comparatively dull Mrs. +Israels, who had been standing beside her at the time, and who had +heard the remark; and yet Mrs. Israels was much better than nothing. +Mrs. Simms had condescended a mild "how'd do" to the latter. + +It was in vain that the Addisons, Sledds, Kingslands, Hoecksemas, +and others made their appearance; Aileen was not reassured. +However, after dinner the younger set, influenced by McKibben, +came to dance, and Aileen was at her best in spite of her doubts. +She was gay, bold, attractive. Kent McKibben, a past master in +the mazes and mysteries of the grand march, had the pleasure of +leading her in that airy, fairy procession, followed by Cowperwood, +who gave his arm to Mrs. Simms. Aileen, in white satin with a +touch of silver here and there and necklet, bracelet, ear-rings, +and hair-ornament of diamonds, glittered in almost an exotic way. +She was positively radiant. McKibben, almost smitten, was most +attentive. + +"This is such a pleasure," he whispered, intimately. "You are +very beautiful--a dream!" + +"You would find me a very substantial one," returned Aileen. +"Would that I might find," he laughed, gaily; and Aileen, gathering +the hidden significance, showed her teeth teasingly. Mrs. Simms, +engrossed by Cowperwood, could not hear as she would have liked. + +After the march Aileen, surrounded by a half-dozen of gay, rudely +thoughtless young bloods, escorted them all to see her portrait. +The conservative commented on the flow of wine, the intensely nude +Gerome at one end of the gallery, and the sparkling portrait of +Aileen at the other, the enthusiasm of some of the young men for +her company. Mrs. Rambaud, pleasant and kindly, remarked to her +husband that Aileen was "very eager for life," she thought. Mrs. +Addison, astonished at the material flare of the Cowperwoods, quite +transcending in glitter if not in size and solidity anything she +and Addison had ever achieved, remarked to her husband that "he +must be making money very fast." + +"The man's a born financier, Ella," Addison explained, sententiously. +"He's a manipulator, and he's sure to make money. Whether they +can get into society I don't know. He could if he were alone, +that's sure. She's beautiful, but he needs another kind of woman, +I'm afraid. She's almost too good-looking." + +"That's what I think, too. I like her, but I'm afraid she's not +going to play her cards right. It's too bad, too." + +Just then Aileen came by, a smiling youth on either side, her own +face glowing with a warmth of joy engendered by much flattery. +The ball-room, which was composed of the music and drawing rooms +thrown into one, was now the objective. It glittered before her +with a moving throng; the air was full of the odor of flowers, and +the sound of music and voices. + +"Mrs. Cowperwood," observed Bradford Canda to Horton Biggers, the +society editor, "is one of the prettiest women I have seen in a +long time. She's almost too pretty." + +"How do you think she's taking?" queried the cautious Biggers. +"Charming, but she's hardly cold enough, I'm afraid; hardly clever +enough. It takes a more serious type. She's a little too +high-spirited. These old women would never want to get near her; +she makes them look too old. She'd do better if she were not so +young and so pretty." + +"That's what I think exactly," said Biggers. As a matter of fact, +he did not think so at all; he had no power of drawing any such +accurate conclusions. But he believed it now, because Bradford +Canda had said it. + + + + +Chapter XI + + + +The Fruits of Daring + +Next morning, over the breakfast cups at the Norrie Simmses' and +elsewhere, the import of the Cowperwoods' social efforts was +discussed and the problem of their eventual acceptance or +non-acceptance carefully weighed. + +"The trouble with Mrs. Cowperwood," observed Mrs. Simms, "is that +she is too gauche. The whole thing was much too showy. The idea +of her portrait at one end of the gallery and that Gerome at the +other! And then this item in the Press this morning! Why, you'd +really think they were in society." Mrs. Simms was already a little +angry at having let herself be used, as she now fancied she had +been, by Taylor Lord and Kent McKibben, both friends of hers. + +What did you think of the crowd?" asked Norrie, buttering a roll. + +"Why, it wasn't representative at all, of course. We were the +most important people they had there, and I'm sorry now that we +went. Who are the Israelses and the Hoecksemas, anyhow? That +dreadful woman!" (She was referring to Mrs. Hoecksema.) "I never +listened to duller remarks in my life." + +"I was talking to Haguenin of the Press in the afternoon," observed +Norrie. "He says that Cowperwood failed in Philadelphia before +he came here, and that there were a lot of lawsuits. Did you ever +hear that?" + +"No. But she says she knows the Drakes and the Walkers there. +I've been intending to ask Nellie about that. I have often wondered +why he should leave Philadelphia if he was getting along so well. +People don't usually do that." + +Simms was envious already of the financial showing Cowperwood was +making in Chicago. Besides, Cowperwood's manner bespoke supreme +intelligence and courage, and that is always resented by all save +the suppliants or the triumphant masters of other walks in life. +Simms was really interested at last to know something more about +Cowperwood, something definite. + +Before this social situation had time to adjust itself one way or +the other, however, a matter arose which in its way was far more +vital, though Aileen might not have thought so. The feeling between +the new and old gas companies was becoming strained; the stockholders +of the older organization were getting uneasy. They were eager +to find out who was back of these new gas companies which were +threatening to poach on their exclusive preserves. Finally one +of the lawyers who had been employed by the North Chicago Gas +Illuminating Company to fight the machinations of De Soto Sippens +and old General Van Sickle, finding that the Lake View Council had +finally granted the franchise to the new company and that the +Appellate Court was about to sustain it, hit upon the idea of +charging conspiracy and wholesale bribery of councilmen. Considerable +evidence had accumulated that Duniway, Jacob Gerecht, and others +on the North Side had been influenced by cash, and to bring legal +action would delay final approval of the franchises and give the +old company time to think what else to do. This North Side company +lawyer, a man by the name of Parsons, had been following up the +movements of Sippens and old General Van Sickle, and had finally +concluded that they were mere dummies and pawns, and that the real +instigator in all this excitement was Cowperwood, or, if not he, +then men whom he represented. Parsons visited Cowperwood's office +one day in order to see him; getting no satisfaction, he proceeded +to look up his record and connections. These various investigations +and counter-schemings came to a head in a court proceeding filed +in the United States Circuit Court late in November, charging Frank +Algernon Cowperwood, Henry De Soto Sippens, Judson P. Van Sickle, +and others with conspiracy; this again was followed almost immediately +by suits begun by the West and South Side companies charging the +same thing. In each case Cowperwood's name was mentioned as the +secret power behind the new companies, conspiring to force the old +companies to buy him out. His Philadelphia history was published, +but only in part--a highly modified account he had furnished the +newspapers some time before. Though conspiracy and bribery are +ugly words, still lawyers' charges prove nothing. But a penitentiary +record, for whatever reason served, coupled with previous failure, +divorce, and scandal (though the newspapers made only the most +guarded reference to all this), served to whet public interest and +to fix Cowperwood and his wife in the public eye. + +Cowperwood himself was solicited for an interview, but his answer +was that he was merely a financial agent for the three new companies, +not an investor; and that the charges, in so far as he was concerned, +were untrue, mere legal fol-de-rol trumped up to make the situation +as annoying as possible. He threatened to sue for libel. +Nevertheless, although these suits eventually did come to nothing +(for he had fixed it so that he could not be traced save as a +financial agent in each case), yet the charges had been made, and +he was now revealed as a shrewd, manipulative factor, with a record +that was certainly spectacular. + +"I see," said Anson Merrill to his wife, one morning at breakfast, +"that this man Cowperwood is beginning to get his name in the +papers." He had the Times on the table before him, and was looking +at a headline which, after the old-fashioned pyramids then in +vogue, read: "Conspiracy charged against various Chicago citizens. +Frank Algernon Cowperwood, Judson P. Van Sickle, Henry De Soto +Sippens, and others named in Circuit Court complaint." It went on +to specify other facts. "I supposed he was just a broker." + +"I don't know much about them," replied his wife, "except what +Bella Simms tells me. What does it say?" + +He handed her the paper. + +"I have always thought they were merely climbers," continued Mrs. +Merrill. "From what I hear she is impossible. I never saw her." + +"He begins well for a Philadelphian," smiled Merrill. "I've seen +him at the Calumet. He looks like a very shrewd man to me. He's +going about his work in a brisk spirit, anyhow." + +Similarly Mr. Norman Schryhart, a man who up to this time had taken +no thought of Cowperwood, although he had noted his appearance +about the halls of the Calumet and Union League Clubs, began to +ask seriously who he was. Schryhart, a man of great physical and +mental vigor, six feet tall, hale and stolid as an ox, a very +different type of man from Anson Merrill, met Addison one day at +the Calumet Club shortly after the newspaper talk began. Sinking +into a great leather divan beside him, he observed: + +"Who is this man Cowperwood whose name is in the papers these days, +Addison? You know: all these people. Didn't you introduce him to +me once?" + +"I surely did," replied Addison, cheerfully, who, in spite of the +attacks on Cowperwood, was rather pleased than otherwise. It was +quite plain from the concurrent excitement that attended all this +struggle, that Cowperwood must be managing things rather adroitly, +and, best of all, he was keeping his backers' names from view. +"He's a Philadelphian by birth. He came out here several years +ago, and went into the grain and commission business. He's a +banker now. A rather shrewd man, I should say. He has a lot of +money." + +"Is it true, as the papers say, that he failed for a million in +Philadelphia in 1871?" + +"In so far as I know, it is." + +"Well, was he in the penitentiary down there?" + +"I think so--yes. I believe it was for nothing really criminal, +though. There appears to have been some political-financial +mix-up, from all I can learn." + +"And is he only forty, as the papers say?" + +"About that, I should judge. Why?" + +"Oh, this scheme of his looks rather pretentious to me--holding +up the old gas companies here. Do you suppose he'll manage to do +it?" + +"I don't know that. All I know is what I have read in the papers," +replied Addison, cautiously. As a matter of fact, he did not care +to talk about this business at all. Cowperwood was busy at this +very time, through an agent, attempting to effect a compromise and +union of all interests concerned. It was not going very well. + +"Humph!" commented Schryhart. He was wondering why men like +himself, Merrill, Arneel, and others had not worked into this field +long ago or bought out the old companies. He went away interested, +and a day or two later--even the next morning--had formulated a +scheme. Not unlike Cowperwood, he was a shrewd, hard, cold man. +He believed in Chicago implicitly and in all that related to its +future. This gas situation, now that Cowperwood had seen the +point, was very clear to him. Even yet it might not be impossible +for a third party to step in and by intricate manipulation secure +the much coveted rewards. Perhaps Cowperwood himself could be +taken over--who could tell? + +Mr. Schryhart, being a very dominating type of person, did not +believe in minor partnerships or investments. If he went into a +thing of this kind it was his preference to rule. He decided to +invite Cowperwood to visit the Schryhart office and talk matters +over. Accordingly, he had his secretary pen a note, which in +rather lofty phrases invited Cowperwood to call "on a matter of +importance." + +Now just at this time, it so chanced, Cowperwood was feeling rather +secure as to his place in the Chicago financial world, although +he was still smarting from the bitterness of the aspersions recently +cast upon him from various quarters. Under such circumstances it +was his temperament to evince a rugged contempt for humanity, rich +and poor alike. He was well aware that Schryhart, although +introduced, had never previously troubled to notice him. + +"Mr. Cowperwood begs me to say," wrote Miss Antoinette Nowak, at +his dictation, "that he finds himself very much pressed for time +at present, but he would be glad to see Mr. Schryhart at his office +at any time." + +This irritated the dominating, self-sufficient Schryhart a little, +but nevertheless he was satisfied that a conference could do no +harm in this instance--was advisable, in fact. So one Wednesday +afternoon he journeyed to the office of Cowperwood, and was most +hospitably received. + +"How do you do, Mr. Schryhart," observed Cowperwood, cordially, +extending his hand. "I'm glad to see you again. I believe we met +once before several years ago." + +"I think so myself," replied Mr. Schryhart, who was broad-shouldered, +square-headed, black-eyed, and with a short black mustache gracing +a firm upper lip. He had hard, dark, piercing eyes. "I see by +the papers, if they can be trusted," he said, coming direct to the +point, "that you are interesting yourself in local gas. Is that +true?" + +"I'm afraid the papers cannot be generally relied on," replied +Cowperwood, quite blandly. "Would you mind telling me what makes +you interested to know whether I am or not?" + +"Well, to tell the truth," replied Schryhart, staring at the +financier, "I am interested in this local gas situation myself. +It offers a rather profitable field for investment, and several +members of the old companies have come to me recently to ask me +to help them combine." (This was not true at all.) "I have been +wondering what chance you thought you had of winning along the +lines you are now taking." + +Cowperwood smiled. "I hardly care to discuss that," he said, +"unless I know much more of your motives and connections than I +do at present. Do I understand that you have really been appealed +to by stockholders of the old companies to come in and help adjust +this matter?" + +"Exactly," said Schryhart. + +"And you think you can get them to combine? On what basis?" + +"Oh, I should say it would be a simple matter to give each of them +two or three shares of a new company for one in each of the old. +We could then elect one set of officers. have one set of offices, +stop all these suits, and leave everybody happy." + +He said this in an easy, patronizing way, as though Cowperwood had +not really thought it all out years before. It amazed the latter +no little to see his own scheme patronizingly brought back to him, +and that, too, by a very powerful man locally--one who thus far +had chosen to overlook him utterly. + +"On what basis," asked Cowperwood, cautiously, "would you expect +these new companies to come in?" + +"On the same basis as the others, if they are not too heavily +capitalized. I haven't thought out all the details. Two or three +for one, according to investment. Of course, the prejudices of +these old companies have to be considered." + +Cowperwood meditated. Should or should he not entertain this +offer? Here was a chance to realize quickly by selling out to the +old companies. Only Schryhart, not himself, would be taking the +big end in this manipulative deal. Whereas if he waited--even if +Schryhart managed to combine the three old companies into one--he +might be able to force better terms. He was not sure. Finally +he asked, "How much stock of the new company would be left in your +hands--or in the hands of the organizing group--after each of the +old and new companies had been provided for on this basis?" + +"Oh, possibly thirty-five or forty per cent. of the whole," replied +Schryhart, ingratiatingly. "The laborer is worthy of his hire." + +"Quite so," replied Cowperwood, smiling, "but, seeing that I am +the man who has been cutting the pole to knock this persimmon it +seems to me that a pretty good share of that should come to me; +don't you think so?" + +"Just what do you mean?" + +"Just what I have said. I personally have organized the new +companies which have made this proposed combination possible. The +plan you propose is nothing more than what I have been proposing +for some time. The officers and directors of the old companies +are angry at me merely because I am supposed to have invaded the +fields that belong to them. Now, if on account of that they are +willing to operate through you rather than through me, it seems +to me that I should have a much larger share in the surplus. My +personal interest in these new companies is not very large. I am +really more of a fiscal agent than anything else." (This was not +true, but Cowperwood preferred to have his guest think so.) + +Schryhart smiled. "But, my dear sir," he explained, "you forget +that I will be supplying nearly all the capital to do this." + +"You forget," retorted Cowperwood, "that I am not a novice. I will +guarantee to supply all the capital myself, and give you a good +bonus for your services, if you want that. The plants and franchises +of the old and new companies are worth something. You must remember +that Chicago is growing." + +"I know that," replied Schryhart, evasively, "but I also know that +you have a long, expensive fight ahead of you. As things are now +you cannot, of yourself, expect to bring these old companies to +terms. They won't work with you, as I understand it. It will +require an outsider like myself--some one of influence, or perhaps, +I had better say, of old standing in Chicago, some one who knows +these people--to bring about this combination. Have you any one, +do you think, who can do it better than I?" + +"It is not at all impossible that I will find some one," replied +Cowperwood, quite easily. + +"I hardly think so; certainly not as things are now. The old +companies are not disposed to work through you, and they are through +me. Don't you think you had better accept my terms and allow me +to go ahead and close this matter up?" + +"Not at all on that basis," replied Cowperwood, quite simply. "We +have invaded the enemies' country too far and done too much. Three +for one or four for one--whatever terms are given the stockholders +of the old companies--is the best I will do about the new shares, +and I must have one-half of whatever is left for myself. At that +I will have to divide with others." (This was not true either.) + +"No," replied Schryhart, evasively and opposingly, shaking his +square head. "It can't be done. The risks are too great. I might +allow you one-fourth, possibly--I can't tell yet." + +"One-half or nothing," said Cowperwood, definitely. + +Schryhart got up. "That's the best you will do, is it?" he +inquired. + +"The very best." + +"I'm afraid then," he said, "we can't come to terms. I'm sorry. +You may find this a rather long and expensive fight." + +"I have fully anticipated that," replied the financier. + + + + +Chapter XII + + + +A New Retainer + +Cowperwood, who had rebuffed Schryhart so courteously but firmly, +was to learn that he who takes the sword may well perish by the +sword. His own watchful attorney, on guard at the state capitol, +where certificates of incorporation were issued in the city and +village councils, in the courts and so forth, was not long in +learning that a counter-movement of significance was under way. +Old General Van Sickle was the first to report that something was +in the wind in connection with the North Side company. He came +in late one afternoon, his dusty greatcoat thrown loosely about +his shoulders, his small, soft hat low over his shaggy eyes, and +in response to Cowperwood's "Evening, General, what can I do for +you?" seated himself portentously. + +"I think you'll have to prepare for real rough weather in the +future, Captain," he remarked, addressing the financier with a +courtesy title that he had fallen in the habit of using. + +"What's the trouble now?" asked Cowperwood. + +"No real trouble as yet, but there may be. Some one--I don't +know who--is getting these three old companies together in one. +There's a certificate of incorporation been applied for at Springfield +for the United Gas and Fuel Company of Chicago, and there are some +directors' meetings now going on at the Douglas Trust Company. I +got this from Duniway, who seems to have friends somewhere that +know." + +Cowperwood put the ends of his fingers together in his customary +way and began to tap them lightly and rhythmically. + +"Let me see--the Douglas Trust Company. Mr. Simms is president +of that. He isn't shrewd enough to organize a thing of that kind. +Who are the incorporators?" + +The General produced a list of four names, none of them officers +or directors of the old companies. + +"Dummies, every one," said Cowperwood, succinctly. "I think I +know," he said, after a few moments' reflection, "who is behind +it, General; but don't let that worry you. They can't harm us if +they do unite. They're bound to sell out to us or buy us out +eventually." + +Still it irritated him to think that Schryhart had succeeded in +persuading the old companies to combine on any basis; he had meant +to have Addison go shortly, posing as an outside party, and propose +this very thing. Schryhart, he was sure, had acted swiftly following +their interview. He hurried to Addison's office in the Lake +National. + +"Have you heard the news?" exclaimed that individual, the moment +Cowperwood appeared. "They're planning to combine. It's Schryhart. +I was afraid of that. Simms of the Douglas Trust is going to act +as the fiscal agent. I had the information not ten minutes +ago." + +"So did I," replied Cowperwood, calmly. "We should have acted a +little sooner. Still, it isn't our fault exactly. Do you know +the terms of agreement?" + +"They're going to pool their stock on a basis of three to one, +with about thirty per cent. of the holding company left for +Schryhart to sell or keep, as he wants to. He guarantees the +interest. We did that for him--drove the game right into his bag." + +"Nevertheless," replied Cowperwood, "he still has us to deal with. +I propose now that we go into the city council and ask for a +blanket franchise. It can be had. If we should get it, it will +bring them to their knees. We will really be in a better position +than they are with these smaller companies as feeders. We can +unite with ourselves." + +"That will take considerable money, won't it?" + +"Not so much. We may never need to lay a pipe or build a plant. +They will offer to sell out, buy, or combine before that. We can +fix the terms. Leave it to me. You don't happen to know by +any chance this Mr. McKenty, who has so much say in local affairs +here--John J. McKenty?" + +Cowperwood was referring to a man who was at once gambler, rumored +owner or controller of a series of houses of prostitution, rumored +maker of mayors and aldermen, rumored financial backer of many +saloons and contracting companies--in short, the patron saint of +the political and social underworld of Chicago, and who was naturally +to be reckoned with in matters which related to the city and state +legislative programme. + +"I don't," said Addison; "but I can get you a letter. Why?" + +"Don't trouble to ask me that now. Get me as strong an introduction +as you can." + +"I'll have one for you to-day some time," replied Addison, +efficiently. "I'll send it over to you." + +Cowperwood went out while Addison speculated as to this newest +move. Trust Cowperwood to dig a pit into which the enemy might +fall. He marveled sometimes at the man's resourcefulness. He +never quarreled with the directness and incisiveness of Cowperwood's +action. + +The man, McKenty, whom Cowperwood had in mind in this rather +disturbing hour, was as interesting and forceful an individual as +one would care to meet anywhere, a typical figure of Chicago and +the West at the time. He was a pleasant, smiling, bland, affable +person, not unlike Cowperwood in magnetism and subtlety, but +different by a degree of animal coarseness (not visible on the +surface) which Cowperwood would scarcely have understood, and in +a kind of temperamental pull drawing to him that vast pathetic +life of the underworld in which his soul found its solution. There +is a kind of nature, not artistic, not spiritual, in no way +emotional, nor yet unduly philosophical, that is nevertheless a +sphered content of life; not crystalline, perhaps, and yet not +utterly dark--an agate temperament, cloudy and strange. As a +three-year-old child McKenty had been brought from Ireland by his +emigrant parents during a period of famine. He had been raised +on the far South Side in a shanty which stood near a maze of +railroad-tracks, and as a naked baby he had crawled on its earthen +floor. His father had been promoted to a section boss after working +for years as a day-laborer on the adjoining railroad, and John, +junior, one of eight other children, had been sent out early to +do many things--to be an errand-boy in a store, a messenger-boy +for a telegraph company, an emergency sweep about a saloon, and +finally a bartender. This last was his true beginning, for he +was discovered by a keen-minded politician and encouraged to run +for the state legislature and to study law. Even as a stripling +what things had he not learned--robbery, ballot-box stuffing, the +sale of votes, the appointive power of leaders, graft, nepotism, +vice exploitation--all the things that go to make up (or did) the +American world of politics and financial and social strife. There +is a strong assumption in the upper walks of life that there is +nothing to be learned at the bottom. If you could have looked +into the capacious but balanced temperament of John J. McKenty you +would have seen a strange wisdom there and stranger memories--whole +worlds of brutalities, tendernesses, errors, immoralities suffered, +endured, even rejoiced in--the hardy, eager life of the animal +that has nothing but its perceptions, instincts, appetites to guide +it. Yet the man had the air and the poise of a gentleman. + +To-day, at forty-eight, McKenty was an exceedingly important +personage. His roomy house on the West Side, at Harrison Street +and Ashland Avenue, was visited at sundry times by financiers, +business men, office-holders, priests, saloon-keepers--in short, +the whole range and gamut of active, subtle, political life. From +McKenty they could obtain that counsel, wisdom, surety, solution +which all of them on occasion were anxious to have, and which in +one deft way and another--often by no more than gratitude and an +acknowledgment of his leadership--they were willing to pay for. +To police captains and officers whose places he occasionally saved, +when they should justly have been discharged; to mothers whose +erring boys or girls he took out of prison and sent home again; +to keepers of bawdy houses whom he protected from a too harsh +invasion of the grafting propensities of the local police; to +politicians and saloon-keepers who were in danger of being destroyed +by public upheavals of one kind and another, he seemed, in hours +of stress, when his smooth, genial, almost artistic face beamed on +them, like a heaven-sent son of light, a kind of Western god, +all-powerful, all-merciful, perfect. On the other hand, there +were ingrates, uncompromising or pharasaical religionists and +reformers, plotting, scheming rivals, who found him deadly to +contend with. There were many henchmen--runners from an almost +imperial throne--to do his bidding. He was simple in dress and +taste, married and (apparently) very happy, a professing though +virtually non-practising Catholic, a suave, genial Buddha-like +man, powerful and enigmatic. + +When Cowperwood and McKenty first met, it was on a spring evening +at the latter's home. The windows of the large house were pleasantly +open, though screened, and the curtains were blowing faintly in a +light air. Along with a sense of the new green life everywhere +came a breath of stock-yards. + +On the presentation of Addison's letter and of another, secured +through Van Sickle from a well-known political judge, Cowperwood +had been invited to call. On his arrival he was offered a drink, +a cigar, introduced to Mrs. McKenty--who, lacking an organized +social life of any kind, was always pleased to meet these celebrities +of the upper world, if only for a moment--and shown eventually +into the library. Mrs. McKenty, as he might have observed if he +had had the eye for it, was plump and fifty, a sort of superannuated +Aileen, but still showing traces of a former hardy beauty, and +concealing pretty well the evidences that she had once been a +prostitute. It so happened that on this particular evening McKenty +was in a most genial frame of mind. There were no immediate +political troubles bothering him just now. It was early in May. +Outside the trees were budding, the sparrows and robins were voicing +their several moods. A delicious haze was in the air, and some +early mosquitoes were reconnoitering the screens which protected +the windows and doors. Cowperwood, in spite of his various troubles, +was in a complacent state of mind himself. He liked life--even +its very difficult complications--perhaps its complications best +of all. Nature was beautiful, tender at times, but difficulties, +plans, plots, schemes to unravel and make smooth--these things +were what made existence worth while. + +"Well now, Mr. Cowperwood," McKenty began, when they finally entered +the cool, pleasant library, "what can I do for you?" + +"Well, Mr. McKenty," said Cowperwood, choosing his words and +bringing the finest resources of his temperament into play, "it +isn't so much, and yet it is. I want a franchise from the Chicago +city council, and I want you to help me get it if you will. I +know you may say to me why not go to the councilmen direct. I +would do that, except that there are certain other elements +--individuals--who might come to you. It won't offend you, I know, +when I say that I have always understood that you are a sort of +clearing-house for political troubles in Chicago." + +Mr. McKenty smiled. "That's flattering," he replied, dryly. + +"Now, I am rather new myself to Chicago," went on Cowperwood, +softly. "I have been here only a year or two. I come from +Philadelphia. I have been interested as a fiscal agent and an +investor in several gas companies that have been organized in Lake +View, Hyde Park, and elsewhere outside the city limits, as you may +possibly have seen by the papers lately. I am not their owner, +in the sense that I have provided all or even a good part of the +money invested in them. I am not even their manager, except in a +very general way. I might better be called their promoter and +guardian; but I am that for other people and myself." + +Mr. McKenty nodded. + +"Now, Mr. McKenty, it was not very long after I started out to get +franchises to do business in Lake View and Hyde Park before I found +myself confronted by the interests which control the three old +city gas companies. They were very much opposed to our entering +the field in Cook County anywhere, as you may imagine, although +we were not really crowding in on their field. Since then they +have fought me with lawsuits, injunctions, and charges of bribery +and conspiracy." + +"I know," put in Mr. McKenty. "I have heard something of it." + +"Quite so," replied Cowperwood. "Because of their opposition I +made them an offer to combine these three companies and the three +new ones into one, take out a new charter, and give the city a +uniform gas service. They would not do that--largely because I +was an outsider, I think. Since then another person, Mr. +Schryhart"--McKenty nodded--"who has never had anything to do with +the gas business here, has stepped in and offered to combine them. +His plan is to do exactly what I wanted to do; only his further +proposition is, once he has the three old companies united, to +invade this new gas field of ours and hold us up, or force us to +sell by obtaining rival franchises in these outlying places. There +is talk of combining these suburbs with Chicago, as you know, which +would allow these three down-town franchises to become mutually +operative with our own. This makes it essential for us to do one +of several things, as you may see--either to sell out on the best +terms we can now, or to continue the fight at a rather heavy expense +without making any attempt to strike back, or to get into the city +council and ask for a franchise to do business in the down-town +section--a general blanket franchise to sell gas in Chicago alongside +of the old companies--with the sole intention of protecting ourselves, +as one of my officers is fond of saying," added Cowperwood, humorously. + +McKenty smiled again. "I see," he said. "Isn't that a rather +large order, though, Mr. Cowperwood, seeking a new franchise? Do +you suppose the general public would agree that the city needs an +extra gas company? It's true the old companies haven't been any +too generous. My own gas isn't of the best." He smiled vaguely, +prepared to listen further. + +"Now, Mr. McKenty, I know that you are a practical man," went on +Cowperwood, ignoring this interruption, "and so am I. I am not +coming to you with any vague story concerning my troubles and +expecting you to be interested as a matter of sympathy. I realize +that to go into the city council of Chicago with a legitimate +proposition is one thing. To get it passed and approved by the +city authorities is another. I need advice and assistance, and I +am not begging it. If I could get a general franchise, such as I +have described, it would be worth a very great deal of money to +me. It would help me to close up and realize on these new companies +which are entirely sound and needed. It would help me to prevent +the old companies from eating me up. As a matter of fact, I must +have such a franchise to protect my interests and give me a running +fighting chance. Now, I know that none of us are in politics or +finance for our health. If I could get such a franchise it would +be worth from one-fourth to one-half of all I personally would +make out of it, providing my plan of combining these new companies +with the old ones should go through--say, from three to four hundred +thousand dollars." (Here again Cowperwood was not quite frank, but +safe.) "It is needless to say to you that I can command ample +capital. This franchise would do that. Briefly, I want to know +if you won't give me your political support in this matter and join +in with me on the basis that I propose? I will make it perfectly +clear to you beforehand who my associates are. I will put all the +data and details on the table before you so that you can see for +yourself how things are. If you should find at any time that I +have misrepresented anything you are at full liberty, of course, +to withdraw. As I said before," he concluded, "I am not a beggar. +I am not coming here to conceal any facts or to hide anything which +might deceive you as to the worth of all this to us. I want you +to know the facts. I want you to give me your aid on such terms +as you think are fair and equitable. Really the only trouble with +me in this situation is that I am not a silk stocking. If I were +this gas war would have been adjusted long ago. These gentlemen +who are so willing to reorganize through Mr. Schryhart are largely +opposed to me because I am--comparatively--a stranger in Chicago +and not in their set. If I were"--he moved his hand slightly--"I +don't suppose I would be here this evening asking for your favor, +although that does not say that I am not glad to be here, or that +I would not be glad to work with you in any way that I might. +Circumstances simply have not thrown me across your path before." + +As he talked his eye fixed McKenty steadily, almost innocently; +and the latter, following him clearly, felt all the while that he +was listening to a strange, able, dark, and very forceful man. +There was no beating about the bush here, no squeamishness of +spirit, and yet there was subtlety--the kind McKenty liked. While +he was amused by Cowperwood's casual reference to the silk stockings +who were keeping him out, it appealed to him. He caught the point +of view as well as the intention of it. Cowperwood represented a +new and rather pleasing type of financier to him. Evidently, he +was traveling in able company if one could believe the men who had +introduced him so warmly. McKenty, as Cowperwood was well aware, +had personally no interest in the old companies and also--though +this he did not say--no particular sympathy with them. They were +just remote financial corporations to him, paying political tribute +on demand, expecting political favors in return. Every few weeks +now they were in council, asking for one gas-main franchise after +another (special privileges in certain streets), asking for better +(more profitable) light-contracts, asking for dock privileges in +the river, a lower tax rate, and so forth and so on. McKenty did +not pay much attention to these things personally. He had a +subordinate in council, a very powerful henchman by the name of +Patrick Dowling, a meaty, vigorous Irishman and a true watch-dog +of graft for the machine, who worked with the mayor, the city +treasurer, the city tax receiver--in fact, all the officers of the +current administration--and saw that such minor matters were properly +equalized. Mr. McKenty had only met two or three of the officers +of the South Side Gas Company, and that quite casually. He did +not like them very well. The truth was that the old companies were +officered by men who considered politicians of the McKenty and +Dowling stripe as very evil men; if they paid them and did other +such wicked things it was because they were forced to do so. + +"Well," McKenty replied, lingering his thin gold watch-chain in a +thoughtful manner, "that's an interesting scheme you have. Of +course the old companies wouldn't like your asking for a rival +franchise, but once you had it they couldn't object very well, +could they?" He smiled. Mr. McKenty spoke with no suggestion of +a brogue. "From one point of view it might be looked upon as bad +business, but not entirely. They would be sure to make a great +cry, though they haven't been any too kind to the public themselves. +But if you offered to combine with them I see no objection. It's +certain to be as good for them in the long run as it is for you. +This merely permits you to make a better bargain." + +"Exactly," said Cowperwood. + +"And you have the means, you tell me, to lay mains in every part +of the city, and fight with them for business if they won't give +in?" + +"I have the means," said Cowperwood, "or if I haven't I can get +them." + +Mr. McKenty looked at Mr. Cowperwood very solemnly. There was a +kind of mutual sympathy, understanding, and admiration between the +two men, but it was still heavily veiled by self-interest. To Mr. +McKenty Cowperwood was interesting because he was one of the few +business men he had met who were not ponderous, pharasaical, even +hypocritical when they were dealing with him. + +"Well, I'll tell you what I'll do, Mr. Cowperwood," he said, +finally. "I'll take it all under consideration. Let me think it +over until Monday, anyhow. There is more of an excuse now for the +introduction of a general gas ordinance than there would be a +little later--I can see that. Why don't you draw up your proposed +franchise and let me see it? Then we might find out what some of +the other gentlemen of the city council think." + +Cowperwood almost smiled at the word "gentlemen." + +"I have already done that," he said. "Here it is." + +McKenty took it, surprised and yet pleased at this evidence of +business proficiency. He liked a strong manipulator of this kind +--the more since he was not one himself, and most of those that +he did know were thin-blooded and squeamish. + +"Let me take this," he said. "I'll see you next Monday again if +you wish. Come Monday." + +Cowperwood got up. "I thought I'd come and talk to you direct, +Mr. McKenty," he said, "and now I'm glad that I did. You will +find, if you will take the trouble to look into this matter, that +it is just as I represent it. There is a very great deal of money +here in one way and another, though it will take some little time +to work it out." + +Mr. McKenty saw the point. "Yes," he said, sweetly, "to be sure." + +They looked into each other's eyes as they shook hands. + +"I'm not sure but you haven't hit upon a very good idea here," +concluded McKenty, sympathetically. "A very good idea, indeed. +Come and see me again next Monday, or about that time, and I'll +let you know what I think. Come any time you have anything else +you want of me. I'll always be glad to see you. It's a fine +night, isn't it?" he added, looking out as they neared the door. +"A nice moon that!" he added. A sickle moon was in the sky. "Good +night." + + + + +Chapter XIII + + + +The Die is Cast + +The significance of this visit was not long in manifesting itself. +At the top, in large affairs, life goes off into almost inexplicable +tangles of personalities. Mr. McKenty, now that the matter had +been called to his attention, was interested to learn about this +gas situation from all sides--whether it might not be more profitable +to deal with the Schryhart end of the argument, and so on. But +his eventual conclusion was that Cowperwood's plan, as he had +outlined it, was the most feasible for political purposes, largely +because the Schryhart faction, not being in a position where they +needed to ask the city council for anything at present, were so +obtuse as to forget to make overtures of any kind to the bucaneering +forces at the City Hall. + +When Cowperwood next came to McKenty's house the latter was in a +receptive frame of mind. "Well," he said, after a few genial +preliminary remarks, "I've been learning what's going on. Your +proposition is fair enough. Organize your company, and arrange +your plan conditionally. Then introduce your ordinance, and we'll +see what can be done." They went into a long, intimate discussion +as to how the forthcoming stock should be divided, how it was to +be held in escrow by a favorite bank of Mr. McKenty's until the +terms of the agreement under the eventual affiliation with the old +companies or the new union company should be fulfilled, and details +of that sort. It was rather a complicated arrangement, not as +satisfactory to Cowperwood as it might have been, but satisfactory +in that it permitted him to win. It required the undivided services +of General Van Sickle, Henry De Soto Sippens, Kent Barrows McKibben, +and Alderman Dowling for some little time. But finally all was in +readiness for the coup. + +On a certain Monday night, therefore, following the Thursday on +which, according to the rules of the city council, an ordinance +of this character would have to be introduced, the plan, after +being publicly broached but this very little while, was quickly +considered by the city council and passed. There had been really +no time for public discussion. This was just the thing, of course, +that Cowperwood and McKenty were trying to avoid. On the day +following the particular Thursday on which the ordinance had been +broached in council as certain to be brought up for passage, +Schryhart, through his lawyers and the officers of the old individual +gas companies, had run to the newspapers and denounced the whole +thing as plain robbery; but what were they to do? There was so +little time for agitation. True the newspapers, obedient to this +larger financial influence, began to talk of "fair play to the old +companies," and the uselessness of two large rival companies in +the field when one would serve as well. Still the public, instructed +or urged by the McKenty agents to the contrary, were not prepared +to believe it. They had not been so well treated by the old +companies as to make any outcry on their behalf. + +Standing outside the city council door, on the Monday evening when +the bill was finally passed, Mr. Samuel Blackman, president of the +South Side Gas Company, a little, wispy man with shoe-brush whiskers, +declared emphatically: + +"This is a scoundrelly piece of business. If the mayor signs that +he should be impeached. There is not a vote in there to-night +that has not been purchased--not one. This is a fine element of +brigandage to introduce into Chicago; why, people who have worked +years and years to build up a business are not safe!" + +"It's true, every word of it," complained Mr. Jordan Jules, president +of the North Side company, a short, stout man with a head like an +egg lying lengthwise, a mere fringe of hair, and hard, blue eyes. +He was with Mr. Hudson Baker, tall and ambling, who was president +of the West Chicago company. All of these had come to protest. + +"It's that scoundrel from Philadelphia. He's the cause of all our +troubles. It's high time the respectable business element of +Chicago realized just what sort of a man they have to deal with +in him. He ought to be driven out of here. Look at his Philadelphia +record. They sent him to the penitentiary down there, and they +ought to do it here." + +Mr. Baker, very recently the guest of Schryhart, and his henchman, +too, was also properly chagrined. "The man is a charlatan," he +protested to Blackman. "He doesn't play fair. It is plain that +he doesn't belong in respectable society." + +Nevertheless, and in spite of this, the ordinance was passed. It +was a bitter lesson for Mr. Norman Schryhart, Mr. Norrie Simms, +and all those who had unfortunately become involved. A committee +composed of all three of the old companies visited the mayor; but +the latter, a tool of McKenty, giving his future into the hands +of the enemy, signed it just the same. Cowperwood had his franchise, +and, groan as they might, it was now necessary, in the language +of a later day, "to step up and see the captain." Only Schryhart +felt personally that his score with Cowperwood was not settled. +He would meet him on some other ground later. The next time he +would try to fight fire with fire. But for the present, shrewd +man that he was, he was prepared to compromise. + +Thereafter, dissembling his chagrin as best he could, he kept on +the lookout for Cowperwood at both of the clubs of which he was a +member; but Cowperwood had avoided them during this period of +excitement, and Mahomet wouid have to go to the mountain. So one +drowsy June afternoon Mr. Schryhart called at Cowperwood's office. +He had on a bright, new, steel-gray suit and a straw hat. From +his pocket, according to the fashion of the time, protruded a neat, +blue-bordered silk handkerchief, and his feet were immaculate in +new, shining Oxford ties. + +"I'm sailing for Europe in a few days, Mr. Cowperwood," he remarked, +genially, "and I thought I'd drop round to see if you and I could +reach some agreement in regard to this gas situation. The officers +of the old companies naturally feel that they do not care to have +a rival in the field, and I'm sure that you are not interested in +carrying on a useless rate war that won't leave anybody any profit. +I recall that you were willing to compromise on a half-and-half +basis with me before, and I was wondering whether you were still +of that mind." + +"Sit down, sit down, Mr. Schryhart," remarked Cowperwood, cheerfully, +waving the new-comer to a chair. "I'm pleased to see you again. +No, I'm no more anxious for a rate war than you are. As a matter +of fact, I hope to avoid it; but, as you see, things have changed +somewhat since I saw you. The gentlemen who have organized and +invested their money in this new city gas company are perfectly +willing--rather anxious, in fact--to go on and establish a legitimate +business. They feel all the confidence in the world that they can +do this, and I agree with them. A compromise might be effected +between the old and the new companies, but not on the basis on +which I was willing to settle some time ago. A new company has +been organized since then, stock issued, and a great deal of money +expended." (This was not true.) "That stock will have to figure +in any new agreement. I think a general union of all the companies +is desirable, but it will have to be on a basis of one, two, three, +or four shares--whatever is decided--at par for all stock involved." + +Mr. Schryhart pulled a long face. "Don't you think that's rather +steep?" he said, solemnly. + +"Not at all, not at all!" replied Cowperwood. "You know these new +expenditures were not undertaken voluntarily." (The irony of this +did not escape Mr. Schryhart, but he said nothing.) + +"I admit all that, but don't you think, since your shares are worth +practically nothing at present, that you ought to be satisfied if +they were accepted at par?" + +"I can't see why," replied Cowperwood. "Our future prospects are +splendid. There must be an even adjustment here or nothing. What +I want to know is how much treasury stock you would expect to have +in the safe for the promotion of this new organization after all +the old stockholders have been satisfied?" + +"Well, as I thought before, from thirty to forty per cent. of the +total issue," replied Schryhart, still hopeful of a profitable +adjustment. "I should think it could be worked on that basis." + +"And who gets that?" + +"Why, the organizer," said Schryhart, evasively. "Yourself, perhaps, +and myself." + +"And how would you divide it? Half and half, as before?" + +"I should think that would be fair." + +"It isn't enough," returned Cowperwood, incisively. "Since I +talked to you last I have been compelled to shoulder obligations +and make agreements which I did not anticipate then. The best I +can do now is to accept three-fourths." + +Schryhart straightened up determinedly and offensively. This was +outrageous, he thought, impossible! The effrontery of it! + +"It can never be done, Mr. Cowperwood," he replied, forcefully. +"You are trying to unload too much worthless stock on the company +as it is. The old companies' stock is selling right now, as you +know, for from one-fifty to two-ten. Your stock is worth nothing. +If you are to be given two or three for one for that, and +three-fourths of the remainder in the treasury, I for one want +nothing to do with the deal. You would be in control of the +company, and it will be water-logged, at that. Talk about getting +something for nothing! The best I would suggest to the stockholders +of the old companies would be half and half. And I may say to you +frankly, although you may not believe it, that the old companies +will not join in with you in any scheme that gives you control. +They are too much incensed. Feeling is running too high. It will +mean a long, expensive fight, and they will never compromise. +Now, if you have anything really reasonable to offer I would be +glad to hear it. Otherwise I am afraid these negotiations are not +going to come to anything." + +"Share and share alike, and three-fourths of the remainder," +repeated Cowperwood, grimly. "I do not want to control. If they +want to raise the money and buy me out on that basis I am willing +to sell. I want a decent return for investments I have made, and +I am going to have it. I cannot speak for the others behind me, +but as long as they deal through me that is what they will expect." + +Mr. Schryhart went angrily away. He was exceedingly wroth. This +proposition as Cowperwood now outlined it was bucaneering at its +best. He proposed for himself to withdraw from the old companies +if necessary, to close out his holdings and let the old companies +deal with Cowperwood as best they could. So long as he had anything +to do with it, Cowperwood should never gain control of the gas +situation. Better to take him at his suggestion, raise the money +and buy him out, even at an exorbitant figure. Then the old gas +companies could go along and do business in their old-fashioned +way without being disturbed. This bucaneer! This upstart! What a +shrewd, quick, forceful move he had made! It irritated Mr. Schryhart +greatly. + +The end of all this was a compromise in which Cowperwood accepted +one-half of the surplus stock of the new general issue, and two +for one of every share of stock for which his new companies had +been organized, at the same time selling out to the old companies +--clearing out completely. It was a most profitable deal, and he +was enabled to provide handsomely not only for Mr. McKenty and +Addison, but for all the others connected with him. It was a +splendid coup, as McKenty and Addison assured him. Having now +done so much, he began to turn his eyes elsewhere for other fields +to conquer. + +But this victory in one direction brought with it corresponding +reverses in another: the social future of Cowperwood and Aileen +was now in great jeopardy. Schryhart, who was a force socially, +having met with defeat at the hands of Cowperwood, was now bitterly +opposed to him. Norrie Simms naturally sided with his old associates. +But the worst blow came through Mrs. Anson Merrill. Shortly after +the housewarming, and when the gas argument and the conspiracy +charges were rising to their heights, she had been to New York and +had there chanced to encounter an old acquaintance of hers, Mrs. +Martyn Walker, of Philadelphia, one of the circle which Cowperwood +once upon a time had been vainly ambitious to enter. Mrs. Merrill, +aware of the interest the Cowperwoods had aroused in Mrs. Simms +and others, welcomed the opportunity to find out something definite. + +"By the way, did you ever chance to hear of a Frank Algernon +Cowperwood or his wife in Philadelphia?" she inquired of Mrs. +Walker. + +"Why, my dear Nellie," replied her friend, nonplussed that a woman +so smart as Mrs. Merrill should even refer to them, "have those +people established themselves in Chicago? His career in Philadelphia +was, to say the least, spectacular. He was connected with a city +treasurer there who stole five hundred thousand dollars, and they +both went to the penitentiary. That wasn't the worst of it! He +became intimate with some young girl--a Miss Butler, the sister +of Owen Butler, by the way, who is now such a power down there, +and--" She merely lifted her eyes. "While he was in the penitentiary +her father died and the family broke up. I even heard it rumored +that the old gentleman killed himself." (She was referring to +Aileen's father, Edward Malia Butler.) "When he came out of the +penitentiary Cowperwood disappeared, and I did hear some one say +that he had gone West, and divorced his wife and married again. +His first wife is still living in Philadelphia somewhere with his +two children." + +Mrs. Merrill was properly astonished, but she did not show it. +"Quite an interesting story, isn't it?" she commented, distantly, +thinking how easy it would be to adjust the Cowperwood situation, +and how pleased she was that she had never shown any interest in +them. "Did you ever see her--his new wife?" + +"I think so, but I forget where. I believe she used to ride and +drive a great deal in Philadelphia." + +"Did she have red hair?" + +"Oh yes. She was a very striking blonde." + +"I fancy it must be the same person. They have been in the papers +recently in Chicago. I wanted to be sure." + +Mrs. Merrill was meditating some fine comments to be made in the +future. + +"I suppose now they're trying to get into Chicago society?" Mrs. +Walker smiled condescendingly and contemptuously--as much at Chicago +society as at the Cowperwoods. + +"It's possible that they might attempt something like that in the +East and succeed--I'm sure I don't know," replied Mrs. Merrill, +caustically, resenting the slur, "but attempting and achieving are +quite different things in Chicago." + +The answer was sufficient. It ended the discussion. When next +Mrs. Simms was rash enough to mention the Cowperwoods, or, rather, +the peculiar publicity in connection with him, her future viewpoint +was definitely fixed for her. + +"If you take my advice," commented Mrs. Merrill, finally, "the +less you have to do with these friends of yours the better. I +know all about them. You might have seen that from the first. +They can never be accepted." + +Mrs. Merrill did not trouble to explain why, but Mrs. Simms through +her husband soon learned the whole truth, and she was righteously +indignant and even terrified. Who was to blame for this sort of +thing, anyhow? she thought. Who had introduced them? The Addisons, +of course. But the Addisons were socially unassailable, if not +all-powerful, and so the best had to be made of that. But the +Cowperwoods could be dropped from the lists of herself and her +friends instantly, and that was now done. A sudden slump in their +social significance began to manifest itself, though not so swiftly +but what for the time being it was slightly deceptive. + +The first evidence of change which Aileen observed was when the +customary cards and invitations for receptions and the like, which +had come to them quite freely of late, began to decline sharply +in number, and when the guests to her own Wednesday afternoons, +which rather prematurely she had ventured to establish, became a +mere negligible handful. At first she could not understand this, +not being willing to believe that, following so soon upon her +apparent triumph as a hostess in her own home, there could be so +marked a decline in her local importance. Of a possible seventy-five +or fifty who might have called or left cards, within three weeks +after the housewarming only twenty responded. A week later it had +declined to ten, and within five weeks, all told, there was scarcely +a caller. It is true that a very few of the unimportant--those who +had looked to her for influence and the self-protecting Taylor Lord +and Kent McKibben, who were commercially obligated to Cowperwood +--were still faithful, but they were really worse than nothing. +Aileen was beside herself with disappointment, opposition, chagrin, +shame. There are many natures, rhinoceros-bided and iron-souled, +who can endure almost any rebuff in the hope of eventual victory, +who are almost too thick-skinned to suffer, but hers was not one +of these. Already, in spite of her original daring in regard to +the opinion of society and the rights of the former Mrs. Cowperwood, +she was sensitive on the score of her future and what her past +might mean to her. Really her original actions could be attributed +to her youthful passion and the powerful sex magnetism of Cowperwood. +Under more fortunate circumstances she would have married safely +enough and without the scandal which followed. As it was now, her +social future here needed to end satisfactorily in order to justify +herself to herself, and, she thought, to him. + +"You may put the sandwiches in the ice-box," she said to Louis, +the butler, after one of the earliest of the "at home" failures, +referring to the undue supply of pink-and-blue-ribboned titbits +which, uneaten, honored some fine Sevres with their presence. +"Send the flowers to the hospital. The servants may drink the +claret cup and lemonade. Keep some of the cakes fresh for dinner." + +The butler nodded his head. "Yes, Madame," he said. Then, by way +of pouring oil on what appeared to him to be a troubled situation, +he added: "Eet's a rough day. I suppose zat has somepsing to do +weeth it." + +Aileen was aflame in a moment. She was about to exclaim: "Mind +your business!" but changed her mind. "Yes, I presume so," was +her answer, as she ascended to her room. If a single poor "at +home" was to be commented on by servants, things were coming to a +pretty pass. She waited until the next week to see whether this +was the weather or a real change in public sentiment. It was worse +than the one before. The singers she had engaged had to be dismissed +without performing the service for which they had come. Kent +McKibben and Taylor Lord, very well aware of the rumors now flying +about, called, but in a remote and troubled spirit. Aileen saw +that, too. An affair of this kind, with only these two and Mrs. +Webster Israels and Mrs. Henry Huddlestone calling, was a sad +indication of something wrong. She had to plead illness and excuse +herself. The third week, fearing a worse defeat than before, +Aileen pretended to be ill. She would see how many cards were left. +There were just three. That was the end. She realized that her +"at homes" were a notable failure. + +At the same time Cowperwood was not to be spared his share in the +distrust and social opposition which was now rampant. + +His first inkling of the true state of affairs came in connection +with a dinner which, on the strength of an old invitation, they +unfortunately attended at a time when Aileen was still uncertain. +It had been originally arranged by the Sunderland Sledds, who +were not so much socially, and who at the time it occurred were +as yet unaware of the ugly gossip going about, or at least of +society's new attitude toward the Cowperwoods. At this time it +was understood by nearly all--the Simms, Candas, Cottons, and +Kingslands--that a great mistake had been made, and that the +Cowperwoods were by no means admissible. + +To this particular dinner a number of people, whom the latter knew, +had been invited. Uniformly all, when they learned or recalled +that the Cowperwoods were expected, sent eleventh-hour regrets +--"so sorry." Outside the Sledds there was only one other couple +--the Stanislau Hoecksemas, for whom the Cowperwoods did not +particularly care. It was a dull evening. Aileen complained of +a headache, and they went home. + +Very shortly afterward, at a reception given by their neighbors, +the Haatstaedts, to which they had long since been invited, there +was an evident shyness in regard to them, quite new in its aspect, +although the hosts themselves were still friendly enough. Previous +to this, when strangers of prominence had been present at an affair +of this kind they were glad to be brought over to the Cowperwoods, +who were always conspicuous because of Aileen's beauty. On this +day, for no reason obvious to Aileen or Cowperwood (although both +suspected), introductions were almost uniformly refused. There +were a number who knew them, and who talked casually, but the +general tendency on the part of all was to steer clear of them. +Cowperwood sensed the difficulty at once. "I think we'd better +leave early," he remarked to Aileen, after a little while. "This +isn't very interesting." + +They returned to their own home, and Cowperwood to avoid discussion +went down-town. He did not care to say what he thought of this +as yet. + +It was previous to a reception given by the Union League that the +first real blow was struck at him personally, and that in a +roundabout way. Addison, talking to him at the Lake National Bank +one morning, had said quite confidentially, and out of a clear sky: + +"I want to tell you something, Cowperwood. You know by now something +about Chicago society. You also know where I stand in regard to +some things you told me about your past when I first met you. +Well, there's a lot of talk going around about you now in regard +to all that, and these two clubs to which you and I belong are +filled with a lot of two-faced, double-breasted hypocrites who've +been stirred up by this talk of conspiracy in the papers. There +are four or five stockholders of the old companies who are members, +and they are trying to drive you out. They've looked up that story +you told me, and they're talking about filing charges with the +house committees at both places. Now, nothing can come of it in +either case--they've been talking to me; but when this next reception +comes along you'll know what to do. They'll have to extend you +an invitation; but they won't mean it." (Cowperwood understood.) +"This whole thing is certain to blow over, in my judgment; it will +if I have anything to do with it; but for the present--" + +He stared at Cowperwood in a friendly way. + +The latter smiled. "I expected something like this, Judah, to +tell you the truth," he said, easily. "I've expected it all along. +You needn't worry about me. I know all about this. I've seen +which way the wind is blowing, and I know how to trim my sails." + +Addison reached out and took his hand. "But don't resign, whatever +you do," he said, cautiously. "That would be a confession of +weakness, and they don't expect you to. I wouldn't want you to. +Stand your ground. This whole thing will blow over. They're +jealous, I think." + +"I never intended to," replied Cowperwood. "There's no legitimate +charge against me. I know it will all blow over if I'm given time +enough." Nevertheless he was chagrined to think that he should be +subjected to such a conversation as this with any one. + +Similarly in other ways "society"--so called--was quite able to +enforce its mandates and conclusions. + +The one thing that Cowperwood most resented, when he learned of +it much later, was a snub direct given to Aileen at the door of +the Norrie Simmses'; she called there only to be told that Mrs. +Simms was not at home, although the carriages of others were in +the street. A few days afterward Aileen, much to his regret and +astonishment--for he did not then know the cause--actually became +ill. + +If it had not been for Cowperwood's eventual financial triumph +over all opposition--the complete routing of the enemy--in the +struggle for control in the gas situation--the situation would +have been hard, indeed. As it was, Aileen suffered bitterly; she +felt that the slight was principally directed at her, and would +remain in force. In the privacy of their own home they were +compelled eventually to admit, the one to the other, that their +house of cards, resplendent and forceful looking as it was, had +fallen to the ground. Personal confidences between people so +closely united are really the most trying of all. Human souls +are constantly trying to find each other, and rarely succeeding. + +"You know," he finally said to her once, when he came in rather +unexpectedly and found her sick in bed, her eyes wet, and her maid +dismissed for the day, "I understand what this is all about. To +tell you the truth, Aileen, I rather expected it. We have been +going too fast, you and I. We have been pushing this matter too +hard. Now, I don't like to see you taking it this way, dear. +This battle isn't lost. Why, I thought you had more courage than +this. Let me tell you something which you don't seem to remember. +Money will solve all this sometime. I'm winning in this fight +right now, and I'll win in others. They are coming to me. Why, +dearie, you oughtn't to despair. You're too young. I never do. +You'll win yet. We can adjust this matter right here in Chicago, +and when we do we will pay up a lot of scores at the same time. +We're rich, and we're going to be richer. That will settle it. +Now put on a good face and look pleased; there are plenty of things +to live for in this world besides society. Get up now and dress, +and we'll go for a drive and dinner down-town. You have me yet. +Isn't that something?" + +"Oh yes," sighed Aileen, heavily; but she sank back again. She +put her arms about his neck and cried, as much out of joy over the +consolation he offered as over the loss she had endured. "It was +as much for you as for me," she sighed. + +"I know that," he soothed; "but don't worry about it now. You +will come out all right. We both will. Come, get up." Nevertheless, +he was sorry to see her yield so weakly. It did not please him. +He resolved some day to have a grim adjustment with society on +this score. Meanwhile Aileen was recovering her spirits. She was +ashamed of her weakness when she saw how forcefully he faced it all. + +"Oh, Frank," she exclaimed, finally, "you're always so wonderful. +You're such a darling." + +"Never mind," he said, cheerfully. "If we don't win this game +here in Chicago, we will somewhere." + +He was thinking of the brilliant manner in which he had adjusted +his affairs with the old gas companies and Mr. Schryhart, and how +thoroughly he would handle some other matters when the time came. + + + + +Chapter XIV + + + +Undercurrents + +It was during the year that followed their social repudiation, and +the next and the next, that Cowperwood achieved a keen realization +of what it would mean to spend the rest of his days in social +isolation, or at least confined in his sources of entertainment +to a circle or element which constantly reminded him of the fact +that he was not identified with the best, or, at least, not the +most significant, however dull that might be. When he had first +attempted to introduce Aileen into society it was his idea that, +however tame they might chance to find it to begin with, they +themselves, once admitted, could make it into something very +interesting and even brilliant. Since the time the Cowperwoods +had been repudiated, however, they had found it necessary, if they +wished any social diversion at all, to fall back upon such various +minor elements as they could scrape an acquaintance with--passing +actors and actresses, to whom occasionally they could give a dinner; +artists and singers whom they could invite to the house upon gaining +an introduction; and, of course, a number of the socially unimportant, +such as the Haatstaedts, Hoecksemas, Videras, Baileys, and others +still friendly and willing to come in a casual way. Cowperwood +found it interesting from time to time to invite a business friend, +a lover of pictures, or some young artist to the house to dinner +or for the evening, and on these occasions Aileen was always +present. The Addisons called or invited them occasionally. But +it was a dull game, the more so since their complete defeat was +thus all the more plainly indicated. + +This defeat, as Cowperwood kept reflecting, was really not his +fault at all. He had been getting along well enough personally. +If Aileen had only been a somewhat different type of woman! +Nevertheless, he was in no way prepared to desert or reproach her. +She had clung to him through his stormy prison days. She had +encouraged him when he needed encouragement. He would stand by +her and see what could be done a little later; but this ostracism +was a rather dreary thing to endure. Besides, personally, he +appeared to be becoming more and more interesting to men and to +women. The men friends he had made he retained--Addison, Bailey, +Videra, McKibben, Rambaud, and others. There were women in society, +a number of them, who regretted his disappearance if not that of +Aileen. Occasionally the experiment would be tried of inviting +him without his wife. At first he refused invariably; later he +went alone occasionally to a dinner-party without her knowledge. + +It was during this interregnum that Cowperwood for the first time +clearly began to get the idea that there was a marked difference +between him and Aileen intellectually and spiritually; and that +while he might be in accord withher in many ways--emotionally, +physically, idyllicly--there were, nevertheless, many things which +he could do alone which she could not do--heights to which he could +rise where she could not possibly follow. Chicago society might +be a negligible quantity, but he was now to contrast her sharply +with the best of what the Old World had to offer in the matter of +femininity, for following their social expulsion in Chicago and +his financial victory, he once more decided to go abroad. In Rome, +at the Japanese and Brazilian embassies (where, because of his +wealth, he gained introduction), and at the newly established +Italian Court, he encountered at a distance charming social figures +of considerable significance--Italian countesses, English ladies +of high degree, talented American women of strong artistic and +social proclivities. As a rule they were quick to recognize the +charm of his manner, the incisiveness and grip of his mind, and +to estimate at all its worth the high individuality of his soul; +but he could also always see that Aileen was not so acceptable. +She was too rich in her entourage, too showy. Her glowing health +and beauty was a species of affront to the paler, more sublimated +souls of many who were not in themselves unattractive. + +"Isn't that the typical American for you," he heard a woman remark, +at one of those large, very general court receptions to which so +many are freely admitted, and to which Aileen had been determined +to go. He was standing aside talking to an acquaintance he had +made--an English-speaking Greek banker stopping at the Grand Hotel +--while Aileen promenaded with the banker's wife. The speaker was +an Englishwoman. "So gaudy, so self-conscious, and so naive!" + +Cowperwood turned to look. It was Aileen, and the lady speaking +was undoubtedly well bred, thoughtful, good-looking. He had to +admit that much that she said was true, but how were you to gage +a woman like Aileen, anyhow? She was not reprehensible in any +way--just a full-blooded animal glowing with a love of life. She +was attractive to him. It was too bad that people of obviously +more conservative tendencies were so opposed to her. Why could +they not see what he saw--a kind of childish enthusiasm for luxury +and show which sprang, perhaps, from the fact that in her youth +she had not enjoyed the social opportunities which she needed and +longed for. He felt sorry for her. At the same time he was +inclined to feel that perhaps now another type of woman would be +better for him socially. If he had a harder type, one with keener +artistic perceptions and a penchant for just the right social touch +or note, how much better he would do! He came home bringing a +Perugino, brilliant examples of Luini, Previtali, and Pinturrichio +(this last a portrait of Caesar Borgia), which he picked up in +Italy, to say nothing of two red African vases of great size that +he found in Cairo, a tall gilt Louis Fifteenth standard of carved +wood that he discovered in Rome, two ornate candelabra from Venice +for his walls, and a pair of Italian torcheras from Naples to +decorate the corners of his library. It was thus by degrees that +his art collection was growing. + +At the same time it should be said, in the matter of women and the +sex question, his judgment and views had begun to change tremendously. +When he had first met Aileen he had many keen intuitions regarding +life and sex, and above all clear faith that he had a right to do +as he pleased. Since he had been out of prison and once more on +his upward way there had been many a stray glance cast in his +direction; he had so often had it clearly forced upon him that he +was fascinating to women. Although he had only so recently acquired +Aileen legally, yet she was years old to him as a mistress, and +the first engrossing--it had been almost all-engrossing--enthusiasm +was over. He loved her not only for her beauty, but for her +faithful enthusiasm; but the power of others to provoke in him a +momentary interest, and passion even, was something which he did +not pretend to understand, explain, or moralize about. So it was +and so he was. He did not want to hurt Aileen's feelings by letting +her know that his impulses thus wantonly strayed to others, but +so it was. + +Not long after he had returned from the European trip he stopped +one afternoon in the one exclusive drygoods store in State Street +to purchase a tie. As he was entering a woman crossed the aisle +before him, from one counter to another--a type of woman which he +was coming to admire, but only from a rather distant point of view, +seeing them going here and there in the world. She was a dashing +type, essentially smart and trig, with a neat figure, dark hair +and eyes, an olive skin, small mouth, quaint nose--all in all quite +a figure for Chicago at the time. She had, furthermore, a curious +look of current wisdom in her eyes, an air of saucy insolence which +aroused Cowperwood's sense of mastery, his desire to dominate. +To the look of provocation and defiance which she flung him for +the fraction of a second he returned a curiously leonine glare +which went over her like a dash of cold water. It was not a hard +look, however, merely urgent and full of meaning. She was the +vagrom-minded wife of a prosperous lawyer who was absorbed in his +business and in himself. She pretended indifference for a moment +after the first glance, but paused a little way off as if to examine +some laces. Cowperwood looked after her to catch a second fleeting, +attracted look. He was on his way to several engagements which +he did not wish to break, but he took out a note-book, wrote on a +slip of paper the name of a hotel, and underneath: "Parlor, second +floor, Tuesday, 1 P.M." Passing by where she stood, he put it into +her gloved hand, which was hanging by her side. The fingers +closed over it automatically. She had noted his action. On the +day and hour suggested she was there, although he had given no +name. That liaison, while delightful to him, was of no great +duration. The lady was interesting, but too fanciful. + +Similarly, at the Henry Huddlestones', one of their neighbors at +the first Michigan Avenue house they occupied, he encountered one +evening at a small dinner-party a girl of twenty-three who interested +him greatly--for the moment. Her name was not very attractive +--Ella F. Hubby, as he eventually learned--but she was not unpleasing. +Her principal charm was a laughing, hoydenish countenance and +roguish eyes. She was the daughter of a well-to-do commission +merchant in South Water Street. That her interest should have +been aroused by that of Cowperwood in her was natural enough. She +was young, foolish, impressionable, easily struck by the glitter +of a reputation, and Mrs. Huddlestone had spoken highly of Cowperwood +and his wife and the great things he was doing or was going to do. +When Ella saw him, and saw that he was still young-looking, with +the love of beauty in his eyes and a force of presence which was +not at all hard where she was concerned, she was charmed; and when +Aileen was not looking her glance kept constantly wandering to his +with a laughing signification of friendship and admiration. It +was the most natural thing in the world for him to say to her, +when they had adjourned to the drawing-room, that if she were in +the neighborhood of his office some day she might care to look in +on him. The look he gave her was one of keen understanding, and +brought a look of its own kind, warm and flushing, in return. She +came, and there began a rather short liaison. It was interesting +but not brilliant. The girl did not have sufficient temperament +to bind him beyond a period of rather idle investigation. + +There was still, for a little while, another woman, whom he had +known--a Mrs. Josephine Ledwell, a smart widow, who came primarily +to gamble on the Board of Trade, but who began to see at once, on +introduction, the charm of a flirtation with Cowperwood. She was +a woman not unlike Aileen in type, a little older, not so good-looking, +and of a harder, more subtle commercial type of mind. She rather +interested Cowperwood because she was so trig, self-sufficient, +and careful. She did her best to lure him on to a liaison with +her, which finally resulted, her apartment on the North Side being +the center of this relationship. It lasted perhaps six weeks. +Through it all he was quite satisfied that he did not like her so +very well. Any one who associated with him had Aileen's present +attractiveness to contend with, as well as the original charm of +his first wife. It was no easy matter. + +It was during this period of social dullness, however, which +somewhat resembled, though it did not exactly parallel his first +years with his first wife, that Cowperwood finally met a woman who +was destined to leave a marked impression on his life. He could +not soon forget her. Her name was Rita Sohlberg. She was the +wife of Harold Sohlberg, a Danish violinist who was then living +in Chicago, a very young man; but she was not a Dane, and he was +by no means a remarkable violinist, though he had unquestionably +the musical temperament. + +You have perhaps seen the would-be's, the nearly's, the pretenders +in every field--interesting people all--devoted with a kind of mad +enthusiasm to the thing they wish to do. They manifest in some +ways all the externals or earmarks of their professional traditions, +and yet are as sounding brass and tinkling cymbals. You would +have had to know Harold Sohlberg only a little while to appreciate +that he belonged to this order of artists. He had a wild, stormy, +November eye, a wealth of loose, brownish-black hair combed upward +from the temples, with one lock straggling Napoleonically down +toward the eyes; cheeks that had almost a babyish tint to them; +lips much too rich, red, and sensuous; a nose that was fine and +large and full, but only faintly aquiline; and eyebrows and mustache +that somehow seemed to flare quite like his errant and foolish +soul. He had been sent away from Denmark (Copenhagen) because he +had been a never-do-well up to twenty-five and because he was +constantly falling in love with women who would not have anything +to do with him. Here in Chicago as a teacher, with his small +pension of forty dollars a month sent him by his mother, he had +gained a few pupils, and by practising a kind of erratic economy, +which kept him well dressed or hungry by turns, he had managed to +make an interesting showing and pull himself through. He was only +twenty-eight at the time he met Rita Greenough, of Wichita, Kansas, +and at the time they met Cowperwood Harold was thirty-four and she +twenty-seven. + +She had been a student at the Chicago Fine Arts School, and at +various student affairs had encountered Harold when he seemed to +play divinely, and when life was all romance and art. Given the +spring, the sunshine on the lake, white sails of ships, a few walks +and talks on pensive afternoons when the city swam in a golden +haze, and the thing was done. There was a sudden Saturday afternoon +marriage, a runaway day to Milwaukee, a return to the studio now +to be fitted out for two, and then kisses, kisses, kisses until +love was satisfied or eased. + +But life cannot exist on that diet alone, and so by degrees the +difficulties had begun to manifest themselves. Fortunately, the +latter were not allied with sharp financial want. Rita was not +poor. Her father conducted a small but profitable grain elevator +at Wichita, and, after her sudden marriage, decided to continue +her allowance, though this whole idea of art and music in its upper +reaches was to him a strange, far-off, uncertain thing. A thin, +meticulous, genial person interested in small trade opportunities, +and exactly suited to the rather sparse social life of Wichita, +he found Harold as curious as a bomb, and preferred to handle him +gingerly. Gradually, however, being a very human if simple person, +he came to be very proud of it--boasted in Wichita of Rita and her +artist husband, invited them home to astound the neighbors during +the summer-time, and the fall brought his almost farmer-like wife +on to see them and to enjoy trips, sight-seeing, studio teas. It +was amusing, typically American, naive, almost impossible from +many points of view. + +Rita Sohlberg was of the semi-phlegmatic type, soft, full-blooded, +with a body that was going to be fat at forty, but which at present +was deliciously alluring. Having soft, silky, light-brown hair, +the color of light dust, and moist gray-blue eyes, with a fair +skin and even, white teeth, she was flatteringly self-conscious +of her charms. She pretended in a gay, childlike way to be +unconscious of the thrill she sent through many susceptible males, +and yet she knew well enough all the while what she was doing and +how she was doing it; it pleased her so to do. She was conscious +of the wonder of her smooth, soft arms and neck, the fullness and +seductiveness of her body, the grace and perfection of her clothing, +or, at least, the individuality and taste which she made them +indicate. She could take an old straw-hat form, a ribbon, a feather, +or a rose, and with an innate artistry of feeling turn it into a +bit of millinery which somehow was just the effective thing for her. +She chose naive combinations of white and blues, pinks and white, +browns and pale yellows, which somehow suggested her own soul, and +topped them with great sashes of silky brown (or even red) ribbon +tied about her waist, and large, soft-brimmed, face-haloing hats. +She was a graceful dancer, could sing a little, could play feelingly +--sometimes brilliantly--and could draw. Her art was a makeshift, +however; she was no artist. The most significant thing about her +was her moods and her thoughts, which were uncertain, casual, +anarchic. Rita Sohlberg, from the conventional point of view, +was a dangerous person, and yet from her own point of view at this +time she was not so at all--just dreamy and sweet. + +A part of the peculiarity of her state was that Sohlberg had begun +to disappoint Rita--sorely. Truth to tell, he was suffering from +that most terrible of all maladies, uncertainty of soul and inability +to truly find himself. At times he was not sure whether he was +cut out to be a great violinist or a great composer, or merely a +great teacher, which last he was never willing really to admit. +"I am an arteest," he was fond of saying. "Ho, how I suffer from +my temperament!" And again: "These dogs! These cows! These pigs!" +This of other people. The quality of his playing was exceedingly +erratic, even though at times it attained to a kind of subtlety, +tenderness, awareness, and charm which brought him some attention. +As a rule, however, it reflected the chaotic state of his own +brain. He would play violently, feverishly, with a wild passionateness +of gesture which robbed him of all ability to control his own +technic. + +"Oh, Harold!" Rita used to exclaim at first, ecstatically. Later +she was not so sure. + +Life and character must really get somewhere to be admirable, and +Harold, really and truly, did not seem to be getting anywhere. +He taught, stormed, dreamed, wept; but he ate his three meals a +day, Rita noticed, and he took an excited interest at times in +other women. To be the be-all and end-all of some one man's life +was the least that Rita could conceive or concede as the worth of +her personality, and so, as the years went on and Harold began to +be unfaithful, first in moods, transports, then in deeds, her mood +became dangerous. She counted them up--a girl music pupil, then +an art student, then the wife of a banker at whose house Harold +played socially. There followed strange, sullen moods on the part +of Rita, visits home, groveling repentances on the part of Harold, +tears, violent, passionate reunions, and then the same thing over +again. What would you? + +Rita was not jealous of Harold any more; she had lost faith in his +ability as a musician. But she was disappointed that her charms +were not sufficient to blind him to all others. That was the fly +in the ointment. It was an affront to her beauty, and she was +still beautiful. She was unctuously full-bodied, not quite so +tall as Aileen, not really as large, but rounder and plumper, +softer and more seductive. Physically she was not well set up, +so vigorous; but her eyes and mouth and the roving character of +her mind held a strange lure. Mentally she was much more aware +than Aileen, much more precise in her knowledge of art, music, +literature, and current events; and in the field of romance she +was much more vague and alluring. She knew many things about +flowers, precious stones, insects, birds, characters in fiction, +and poetic prose and verse generally. + +At the time the Cowperwoods first met the Sohlbergs the latter +still had their studio in the New Arts Building, and all was +seemingly as serene as a May morning, only Harold was not getting +along very well. He was drifting. The meeting was at a tea given +by the Haatstaedts, with whom the Cowperwoods were still friendly, +and Harold played. Aileen, who was there alone, seeing a chance +to brighten her own life a little, invited the Sohlbergs, who seemed +rather above the average, to her house to a musical evening. They +came. + +On this occasion Cowperwood took one look at Sohlberg and placed +him exactly. "An erratic, emotional temperament," he thought. +"Probably not able to place himself for want of consistency and +application." But he liked him after a fashion. Sohlberg was +interesting as an artistic type or figure--quite like a character +in a Japanese print might be. He greeted him pleasantly. + +"And Mrs. Sohlberg, I suppose," he remarked, feelingly, catching +a quick suggestion of the rhythm and sufficiency and naive taste +that went with her. She was in simple white and blue--small blue +ribbons threaded above lacy flounces in the skin. Her arms and +throat were deliciously soft and bare. Her eyes were quick, and +yet soft and babyish--petted eyes. + +"You know," she said to him, with a peculiar rounded formation of +the mouth, which was a characteristic of her when she talked--a +pretty, pouty mouth, "I thought we would never get heah at all. +There was a fire"--she pronounced it fy-yah--"at Twelfth Street" +(the Twelfth was Twalfth in her mouth) "and the engines were all +about there. Oh, such sparks and smoke! And the flames coming out +of the windows! The flames were a very dark red--almost orange and +black. They're pretty when they're that way--don't you think so?" + +Cowperwood was charmed. "Indeed, I do," he said, genially, using +a kind of superior and yet sympathetic air which he could easily +assume on occasion. He felt as though Mrs. Sohlberg might be a +charming daughter to him--she was so cuddling and shy--and yet +he could see that she was definite and individual. Her arms and +face, he told himself, were lovely. Mrs. Sohlberg only saw before +her a smart, cold, exact man--capable, very, she presumed--with +brilliant, incisive eyes. How different from Harold, she thought, +who would never be anything much--not even famous. + +"I'm so glad you brought your violin," Aileen was saying to Harold, +who was in another corner. "I've been looking forward to your +coming to play for us." + +"Very nize ov you, I'm sure," Sohlberg replied, with his sweety +drawl. "Such a nize plaze you have here--all these loafly books, +and jade, and glass." + +He had an unctuous, yielding way which was charming, Aileen thought. +He should have a strong, rich woman to take care of him. He was +like a stormy, erratic boy. + +After refreshments were served Sohlberg played. Cowperwood was +interested by his standing figure--his eyes, his hair--but he was +much more interested in Mrs. Sohlberg, to whom his look constantly +strayed. He watched her hands on the keys, her fingers, the dimples +at her elbows. What an adorable mouth, he thought, and what light, +fluffy hair! But, more than that, there was a mood that invested +it all--a bit of tinted color of the mind that reached him and +made him sympathetic and even passionate toward her. She was the +kind of woman he would like. She was somewhat like Aileen when +she was six years younger (Aileen was now thirty-three, and Mrs. +Sohlberg twenty-seven), only Aileen had always been more robust, +more vigorous, less nebulous. Mrs. Sohlberg (he finally thought +it out for himself) was like the rich tinted interior of a South +Sea oyster-shell--warm, colorful, delicate. But there was something +firm there, too. Nowhere in society had he seen any one like her. +She was rapt, sensuous, beautiful. He kept his eyes on her until +finally she became aware that he was gazing at her, and then she +looked back at him in an arch, smiling way, fixing her mouth in a +potent line. Cowperwood was captivated. Was she vulnerable? was +his one thought. Did that faint smile mean anything more than +mere social complaisance? Probably not, but could not a temperament +so rich and full be awakened to feeling by his own? When she was +through playing he took occasion to say: "Wouldn't you like to +stroll into the gallery? Are you fond of pictures?" He gave her +his arm. + +"Now, you know," said Mrs. Sohlberg, quaintly--very captivatingly, +he thought, because she was so pretty--"at one time I thought I +was going to be a great artist. Isn't that funny! I sent my father +one of my drawings inscribed 'to whom I owe it all.' You would +have to see the drawing to see how funny that is." + +She laughed softly. + +Cowperwood responded with a refreshed interest in life. Her laugh +was as grateful to him as a summer wind. "See," he said, gently, +as they entered the room aglow with the soft light produced by +guttered jets, "here is a Luini bought last winter." It was "The +Mystic Marriage of St. Catharine." He paused while she surveyed +the rapt expression of the attenuated saint. "And here," he went +on, "is my greatest find so far." They were before the crafty +countenance of Caesar Borgia painted by Pinturrichio. + +"What a strange face!" commented Mrs. Sohlberg, naively. "I didn't +know any one had ever painted him. He looks somewhat like an +artist himself, doesn't he?" She had never read the involved and +quite Satanic history of this man, and only knew the rumor of his +crimes and machinations. + +"He was, in his way," smiled Cowperwood, who had had an outline +of his life, and that of his father, Pope Alexander VI., furnished +him at the time of the purchase. Only so recently had his interest +in Caesar Borgia begun. Mrs. Sohlberg scarcely gathered the sly +humor of it. + +"Oh yes, and here is Mrs. Cowperwood," she commented, turning to +the painting by Van Beers. "It's high in key, isn't it?" she +said, loftily, but with an innocent loftiness that appealed to +him. He liked spirit and some presumption in a woman. "What +brilliant colors! I like the idea of the garden and the clouds." + +She stepped back, and Cowperwood, interested only in her, surveyed +the line of her back and the profile of her face. Such co-ordinated +perfection of line and color! + +"Where every motion weaves and sings," he might have commented. +Instead he said: "That was in Brussels. The clouds were an +afterthought, and that vase on the wall, too." + +"It's very good, I think," commented Mrs. Sohlberg, and moved away. + +"How do you like this Israels?" he asked. It was the painting +called "The Frugal Meal." + +"I like it," she said, "and also your Bastien Le-Page," referring +to "The Forge." "But I think your old masters are much more +interesting. If you get many more you ought to put them together +in a room. Don't you think so? I don't care for your Gerome very +much." She had a cute drawl which he considered infinitely alluring. + +"Why not?" asked Cowperwood. + +"Oh, it's rather artificial; don't you think so? I like the color, +but the women's bodies are too perfect, I should say. It's very +pretty, though." + +He had little faith in the ability of women aside from their value +as objects of art; and yet now and then, as in this instance, they +revealed a sweet insight which sharpened his own. Aileen, he +reflected, would not be capable of making a remark such as this. +She was not as beautiful now as this woman--not as alluringly +simple, naive, delicious, nor yet as wise. Mrs. Sohlberg, he +reflected shrewdly, had a kind of fool for a husband. Would she +take an interest in him, Frank Cowperwood? Would a woman like this +surrender on any basis outside of divorce and marriage? He wondered. +On her part, Mrs. Sohlberg was thinking what a forceful man +Cowperwood was, and how close he had stayed by her. She felt his +interest, for she had often seen these symptoms in other men and +knew what they meant. She knew the pull of her own beauty, and, +while she heightened it as artfully as she dared, yet she kept +aloof, too, feeling that she had never met any one as yet for whom +it was worth while to be different. But Cowperwood--he needed +someone more soulful than Aileen, she thought. + + + + +Chapter XV + + + +A New Affection + +The growth of a relationship between Cowperwood and Rita Sohlberg +was fostered quite accidentally by Aileen, who took a foolishly +sentimental interest in Harold which yet was not based on anything +of real meaning. She liked him because he was a superlatively +gracious, flattering, emotional man where women--pretty women--were +concerned. She had some idea she could send him pupils, and, +anyhow, it was nice to call at the Sohlberg studio. Her social +life was dull enough as it was. So she went, and Cowperwood, +mindful of Mrs. Sohlberg, came also. Shrewd to the point of +destruction, he encouraged Aileen in her interest in them. He +suggested that she invite them to dinner, that they give a musical +at which Sohlberg could play and be paid. There were boxes at the +theaters, tickets for concerts sent, invitations to drive Sundays +or other days. + +The very chemistry of life seems to play into the hands of a +situation of this kind. Once Cowperwood was thinking vividly, +forcefully, of her, Rita began to think in like manner of him. +Hourly he grew more attractive, a strange, gripping man. Beset +by his mood, she was having the devil's own time with her conscience. +Not that anything had been said as yet, but he was investing her, +gradually beleaguering her, sealing up, apparently, one avenue +after another of escape. One Thursday afternoon, when neither +Aileen nor he could attend the Sohlberg tea, Mrs. Sohlberg received +a magnificent bunch of Jacqueminot roses. "For your nooks and +corners," said a card. She knew well enough from whom it came and +what it was worth. There were all of fifty dollars worth of roses. +It gave her breath of a world of money that she had never known. +Daily she saw the name of his banking and brokerage firm advertised +in the papers. Once she met him in Merrill's store at noon, and +he invited her to lunch; but she felt obliged to decline. Always +he looked at her with such straight, vigorous eyes. To think that +her beauty had done or was doing this! Her mind, quite beyond +herself, ran forward to an hour when perhaps this eager, magnetic +man would take charge of her in a way never dreamed of by Harold. +But she went on practising, shopping, calling, reading, brooding +over Harold's inefficiency, and stopping oddly sometimes to think +--the etherealized grip of Cowperwood upon her. Those strong +hands of his--how fine they were--and those large, soft-hard, +incisive eyes. The puritanism of Wichita (modified sometime since +by the art life of Chicago, such as it was) was having a severe +struggle with the manipulative subtlety of the ages--represented +in this man. + +"You know you are very elusive," he said to her one evening at the +theater when he sat behind her during the entr'acte, and Harold +and Aileen had gone to walk in the foyer. The hubbub of conversation +drowned the sound of anything that might be said. Mrs. Sohlberg +was particularly pleasing in a lacy evening gown. + +"No," she replied, amusedly, flattered by his attention and acutely +conscious of his physical nearness. By degrees she had been +yielding herself to his mood, thrilling at his every word. "It +seems to me I am very stable," she went on. "I'm certainly +substantial enough." + +She looked at her full, smooth arm lying on her lap. + +Cowperwood, who was feeling all the drag of her substantiality, +but in addition the wonder of her temperament, which was so much +richer than Aileen's, was deeply moved. Those little blood moods +that no words ever (or rarely) indicate were coming to him from +her--faint zephyr-like emanations of emotions, moods, and fancies +in her mind which allured him. She was like Aileen in animality, +but better, still sweeter, more delicate, much richer spiritually. +Or was he just tired of Aileen for the present, he asked himself +at times. No, no, he told himself that could not be. Rita Sohlberg +was by far the most pleasing woman he had ever known. + +"Yes, but elusive, just the same," he went on, leaning toward her. +"You remind me of something that I can find no word for--a bit of +color or a perfume or tone--a flash of something. I follow you +in my thoughts all the time now. Your knowledge of art interests +me. I like your playing--it is like you. You make me think of +delightful things that have nothing to do with the ordinary run +of my life. Do you understand?" + +"It is very nice," she said, "if I do." She took a breath, softly, +dramatically. "You make me think vain things, you know." (Her +mouth was a delicious O.) "You paint a pretty picture." She was +warm, flushed, suffused with a burst of her own temperament. + +"You are like that," he went on, insistently. "You make me feel +like that all the time. You know," he added, leaning over her +chair, "I sometimes think you have never lived. There is so much +that would complete your perfectness. I should like to send you +abroad or take you--anyhow, you should go. You are very wonderful +to me. Do you find me at all interesting to you?" + +"Yes, but"--she paused--"you know I am afraid of all this and of +you." Her mouth had that same delicious formation which had first +attracted him. "I don't think we had better talk like this, do +you? Harold is very jealous, or would be. What do you suppose +Mrs. Cowperwood would think?" + +"I know very well, but we needn't stop to consider that now, need +we? It will do her no harm to let me talk to you. Life is between +individuals, Rita. You and I have very much in common. Don't you +see that? You are infinitely the most interesting woman I have +ever known. You are bringing me something I have never known. +Don't you see that? I want you to tell me something truly. Look +at me. You are not happy as you are, are you? Not perfectly happy?" + +"No." She smoothed her fan with her fingers. + +"Are you happy at all?" + +"I thought I was once. I'm not any more, I think." + +"It is so plain why," he commented. "You are so much more wonderful +than your place gives you scope for. You are an individual, not +an acolyte to swing a censer for another. Mr. Sohlberg is very +interesting, but you can't be happy that way. It surprises me you +haven't seen it." + +"Oh," she exclaimed, with a touch of weariness, "but perhaps I +have." + +He looked at her keenly, and she thrilled. "I don't think we'd +better talk so here," she replied. "You'd better be--" + +He laid his hand on the back of her chair, almost touching her +shoulder. + +"Rita," he said, using her given name again, "you wonderful woman!" + +"Oh!" she breathed. + +Cowperwood did not see Mrs. Sohlberg again for over a week--ten +days exactly--when one afternoon Aileen came for him in a new kind +of trap, having stopped first to pick up the Sohlbergs. Harold +was up in front with her and she had left a place behind for +Cowperwood with Rita. She did not in the vaguest way suspect how +interested he was--his manner was so deceptive. Aileen imagined +that she was the superior woman of the two, the better-looking, +the better-dressed, hence the more ensnaring. She could not guess +what a lure this woman's temperament had for Cowperwood, who was +so brisk, dynamic, seemingly unromantic, but who, just the same, +in his nature concealed (under a very forceful exterior) a deep +underlying element of romance and fire. + +"This is charming," he said, sinking down beside Rita. "What a +fine evening! And the nice straw hat with the roses, and the nice +linen dress. My, my!" The roses were red; the dress white, with +thin, green ribbon run through it here and there. She was keenly +aware of the reason for his enthusiasm. He was so different from +Harold, so healthy and out-of-doorish, so able. To-day Harold had +been in tantrums over fate, life, his lack of success. + +"Oh, I shouldn't complain so much if I were you," she had said to +him, bitterly. "You might work harder and storm less." + +This had produced a scene which she had escaped by going for a +walk. Almost at the very moment when she had returned Aileen had +appeared. It was a way out. + +She had cheered up, and accepted, dressed. So had Sohlberg. +Apparently smiling and happy, they had set out on the drive. Now, +as Cowperwood spoke, she glanced about her contentedly. "I'm +lovely," she thought, "and he loves me. How wonderful it would +be if we dared." But she said aloud: "I'm not so very nice. It's +just the day--don't you think so? It's a simple dress. I'm not +very happy, though, to-night, either." + +"What's the matter?" he asked, cheeringly, the rumble of the traffic +destroying the carrying-power of their voices. He leaned toward +her, very anxious to solve any difficulty which might confront +her, perfectly willing to ensnare her by kindness. "Isn't there +something I can do? We're going now for a long ride to the pavilion +in Jackson Park, and then, after dinner, we'll come back by +moonlight. Won't that be nice? You must be smiling now and like +yourself--happy. You have no reason to be otherwise that I know +of. I will do anything for you that you want done--that can be +done. You can have anything you want that I can give you. What +is it? You know how much I think of you. If you leave your affairs +to me you would never have any troubles of any kind." + +"Oh, it isn't anything you can do--not now, anyhow. My affairs! +Oh yes. What are they? Very simple, all." + +She had that delicious atmosphere of remoteness even from herself. +He was enchanted. + +"But you are not simple to me, Rita," he said, softly, "nor are +your affairs. They concern me very much. You are so important +to me. I have told you that. Don't you see how true it is? You +are a strange complexity to me--wonderful. I'm mad over you. +Ever since I saw you last I have been thinking, thinking. If you +have troubles let me share them. You are so much to me--my only +trouble. I can fix your life. Join it with mine. I need you, +and you need me." + +"Yes," she said, "I know." Then she paused. "It's nothing much," +she went on--"just a quarrel." + +"What over?" + +"Over me, really." The mouth was delicious. "I can't swing the +censer always, as you say." That thought of his had stuck. "It's +all right now, though. Isn't the day lovely, be-yoot-i-ful!" + +Cowperwood looked at her and shook his head. She was such a +treasure--so inconsequential. Aileen, busy driving and talking, +could not see or hear. She was interested in Sohlberg, and the +southward crush of vehicles on Michigan Avenue was distracting her +attention. As they drove swiftly past budding trees, kempt lawns, +fresh-made flower-beds, open windows--the whole seductive world +of spring--Cowperwood felt as though life had once more taken a +fresh start. His magnetism, if it had been visible, would have +enveloped him like a glittering aura. Mrs. Sohlberg felt that +this was going to be a wonderful evening. + +The dinner was at the Park--an open-air chicken a la Maryland +affair, with waffles and champagne to help out. Aileen, flattered +by Sohlberg's gaiety under her spell, was having a delightful time, +jesting, toasting, laughing, walking on the grass. Sohlberg was +making love to her in a foolish, inconsequential way, as many men +were inclined to do; but she was putting him off gaily with "silly +boy" and "hush." She was so sure of herself that she was free to +tell Cowperwood afterward how emotional he was and how she had to +laugh at him. Cowperwood, quite certain that she was faithful, +took it all in good part. Sohlberg was such a dunce and such a +happy convenience ready to his hand. "He's not a bad sort," he +commented. "I rather like him, though I don't think he's so much +of a violinist." + +After dinner they drove along the lake-shore and out through an +open bit of tree-blocked prairie land, the moon shining in a clear +sky, filling the fields and topping the lake with a silvery +effulgence. Mrs. Sohlberg was being inoculated with the virus +Cowperwood, and it was taking deadly effect. The tendency of her +own disposition, however lethargic it might seem, once it was +stirred emotionally, was to act. She was essentially dynamic and +passionate. Cowperwood was beginning to stand out in her mind as +the force that he was. It would be wonderful to be loved by such +a man. There would be an eager, vivid life between them. It +frightened and drew her like a blazing lamp in the dark. To get +control of herself she talked of art, people, of Paris, Italy, and +he responded in like strain, but all the while he smoothed her hand, +and once, under the shadow of some trees, he put his hand to her +hair, turned her face, and put his mouth softly to her cheek. She +flushed, trembled, turned pale, in the grip of this strange storm, +but drew herself together. It was wonderful--heaven. Her old +life was obviously going to pieces. + +"Listen," he said, guardedly. "Will you meet me to-morrow at three +just beyond the Rush Street bridge? I will pick you up promptly. +You won't have to wait a moment." + +She paused, meditating, dreaming, almost hypnotized by his strange +world of fancy. + +"Will you?" he asked, eagerly. + +"Wait," she said, softly. "Let me think. Can I?" + +She paused. + +"Yes," she said, after a time, drawing in a deep breath. "Yes"--as +if she had arranged something in her mind. + +"My sweet," he whispered, pressing her arm, while he looked at her +profile in the moonlight. + +"But I'm doing a great deal," she replied, softly, a little +breathless and a little pale. + + + + +Chapter XVI + + + +A Fateful Interlude + +Cowperwood was enchanted. He kept the proposed tryst with eagerness +and found her all that he had hoped. She was sweeter, more colorful, +more elusive than anybody he had ever known. In their charming +apartment on the North Side which he at once engaged, and where +he sometimes spent mornings, evenings, afternoons, as opportunity +afforded, he studied her with the most critical eye and found her +almost flawless. She had that boundless value which youth and a +certain insouciance of manner contribute. There was, delicious +to relate, no melancholy in her nature, but a kind of innate +sufficiency which neither looked forward to nor back upon troublesome +ills. She loved beautiful things, but was not extravagant; and +what interested him and commanded his respect was that no urgings +of his toward prodigality, however subtly advanced, could affect +her. She knew what she wanted, spent carefully, bought tastefully, +arrayed herself in ways which appealed to him as the flowers did. +His feeling for her became at times so great that he wished, one +might almost have said, to destroy it--to appease the urge and +allay the pull in himself, but it was useless. The charm of her +endured. His transports would leave her refreshed apparently, +prettier, more graceful than ever, it seemed to him, putting back +her ruffled hair with her hand, mouthing at herself prettily in +the glass, thinking of many remote delicious things at once. + +"Do you remember that picture we saw in the art store the other +day, Algernon?" she would drawl, calling him by his second name, +which she had adopted for herself as being more suited to his moods +when with her and more pleasing to her. Cowperwood had protested, +but she held to it. "Do you remember that lovely blue of the old +man's coat?" (It was an "Adoration of the Magi.") "Wasn't that +be-yoot-i-ful?" + +She drawled so sweetly and fixed her mouth in such an odd way that +he was impelled to kiss her. "You clover blossom," he would say +to her, coming over and taking her by the arms. "You sprig of +cherry bloom. You Dresden china dream." + +"Now, are you going to muss my hair, when I've just managed to fix +it?" + +The voice was the voice of careless, genial innocence--and the +eyes. + +"Yes, I am, minx." + +"Yes, but you mustn't smother me, you know. Really, you know you +almost hurt me with your mouth. Aren't you going to be nice to me?" + +"Yes, sweet. But I want to hurt you, too." + +"Well, then, if you must." + +But for all his transports the lure was still there. She was like +a butterfly, he thought, yellow and white or blue and gold, +fluttering over a hedge of wild rose. + +In these intimacies it was that he came quickly to understand how +much she knew of social movements and tendencies, though she was +just an individual of the outer fringe. She caught at once a clear +understanding of his social point of view, his art ambition, his +dreams of something better for himself in every way. She seemed +to see clearly that he had not as yet realized himself, that Aileen +was not just the woman for him, though she might be one. She +talked of her own husband after a time in a tolerant way--his +foibles, defects, weaknesses. She was not unsympathetic, he +thought, just weary of a state that was not properly balanced +either in love, ability, or insight. Cowperwood had suggested +that she could take a larger studio for herself and Harold--do +away with the petty economies that had hampered her and him--and +explain it all on the grounds of a larger generosity on the part +of her family. At first she objected; but Cowperwood was tactful +and finally brought it about. He again suggested a little while +later that she should persuade Harold to go to Europe. There would +be the same ostensible reason--additional means from her relatives. +Mrs. Sohlberg, thus urged, petted, made over, assured, came finally +to accept his liberal rule--to bow to him; she became as contented +as a cat. With caution she accepted of his largess, and made the +cleverest use of it she could. For something over a year neither +Sohlberg nor Aileen was aware of the intimacy which had sprung up. +Sohlberg, easily bamboozled, went back to Denmark for a visit, +then to study in Germany. Mrs. Sohlberg followed Cowperwood to +Europe the following year. At Aix-les-Bains, Biarritz, Paris, +even London, Aileen never knew that there was an additional figure +in the background. Cowperwood was trained by Rita into a really +finer point of view. He came to know better music, books, even +the facts. She encouraged him in his idea of a representative +collection of the old masters, and begged him to be cautious in +his selection of moderns. He felt himself to be delightfully +situated indeed. + +The difficulty with this situation, as with all such where an +individual ventures thus bucaneeringly on the sea of sex, is the +possibility of those storms which result from misplaced confidence, +and from our built-up system of ethics relating to property in +women. To Cowperwood, however, who was a law unto himself, who +knew no law except such as might be imposed upon him by his lack +of ability to think, this possibility of entanglement, wrath, rage, +pain, offered no particular obstacle. It was not at all certain +that any such thing would follow. Where the average man might +have found one such liaison difficult to manage, Cowperwood, as +we have seen, had previously entered on several such affairs almost +simultaneously; and now he had ventured on yet another; in the +last instance with much greater feeling and enthusiasm. The +previous affairs had been emotional makeshifts at best--more or +less idle philanderings in which his deeper moods and feelings +were not concerned. In the case of Mrs. Sohlberg all this was +changed. For the present at least she was really all in all to +him. But this temperamental characteristic of his relating to his +love of women, his artistic if not emotional subjection to their +beauty, and the mystery of their personalities led him into still +a further affair, and this last was not so fortunate in its outcome. + +Antoinette Nowak had come to him fresh from a West Side high school +and a Chicago business college, and had been engaged as his private +stenographer and secretary. This girl had blossomed forth into +something exceptional, as American children of foreign parents are +wont to do. You would have scarcely believed that she, with her +fine, lithe body, her good taste in dress, her skill in stenography, +bookkeeping, and business details, could be the daughter of a +struggling Pole, who had first worked in the Southwest Chicago +Steel Mills, and who had later kept a fifth-rate cigar, news, and +stationery store in the Polish district, the merchandise of +playing-cards and a back room for idling and casual gaming being +the principal reasons for its existence. Antoinette, whose first +name had not been Antoinette at all, but Minka (the Antoinette +having been borrowed by her from an article in one of the Chicago +Sunday papers), was a fine dark, brooding girl, ambitious and +hopeful, who ten days after she had accepted her new place was +admiring Cowperwood and following his every daring movement with +almost excited interest. To be the wife of such a man, she +thought--to even command his interest, let alone his affection +--must be wonderful. After the dull world she had known--it seemed +dull compared to the upper, rarefied realms which she was beginning +to glimpse through him--and after the average men in the real-estate +office over the way where she had first worked, Cowperwood, in his +good clothes, his remote mood, his easy, commanding manner, touched +the most ambitious chords of her being. One day she saw Aileen +sweep in from her carriage, wearing warm brown furs, smart polished +boots, a street-suit of corded brown wool, and a fur toque sharpened +and emphasized by a long dark-red feather which shot upward like +a dagger or a quill pen. Antoinette hated her. She conceived +herself to be better, or as good at least. Why was life divided +so unfairly? What sort of a man was Cowperwood, anyhow? One night +after she had written out a discreet but truthful history of himself +which he had dictated to her, and which she had sent to the Chicago +newspapers for him soon after the opening of his brokerage office +in Chicago, she went home and dreamed of what he had told her, +only altered, of course, as in dreams. She thought that Cowperwood +stood beside her in his handsome private office in La Salle Street +and asked her: + +"Antoinette, what do you think of me?" Antoinette was nonplussed, +but brave. In her dream she found herself intensely interested +in him. + +"Oh, I don't know what to think. I'm so sorry," was her answer. +Then he laid his hand on hers, on her cheek, and she awoke. She +began thinking, what a pity, what a shame that such a man should +ever have been in prison. He was so handsome. He had been married +twice. Perhaps his first wife was very homely or very mean-spirited. +She thought of this, and the next day went to work meditatively. +Cowperwood, engrossed in his own plans, was not thinking of her +at present. He was thinking of the next moves in his interesting +gas war. And Aileen, seeing her one day, merely considered her +an underling. The woman in business was such a novelty that as +yet she was declasse. Aileen really thought nothing of Antoinette +at all. + +Somewhat over a year after Cowperwood had become intimate with +Mrs. Sohlberg his rather practical business relations with Antoinette +Nowak took on a more intimate color. What shall we say of this +--that he had already wearied of Mrs. Sohlberg? Not in the least. +He was desperately fond of her. Or that he despised Aileen, whom +he was thus grossly deceiving? Not at all. She was to him at +times as attractive as ever--perhaps more so for the reason that +her self-imagined rights were being thus roughly infringed upon. +He was sorry for her, but inclined to justify himself on the ground +that these other relations--with possibly the exception of Mrs. +Sohlherg--were not enduring. If it had been possible to marry +Mrs. Sohlberg he might have done so, and he did speculate at times +as to whether anything would ever induce Aileen to leave him; but +this was more or less idle speculation. He rather fancied they +would live out their days together, seeing that he was able thus +easily to deceive her. But as for a girl like Antoinette Nowak, +she figured in that braided symphony of mere sex attraction which +somehow makes up that geometric formula of beauty which rules the +world. She was charming in a dark way, beautiful, with eyes that +burned with an unsatisfied fire; and Cowperwood, although at first +only in the least moved by her, became by degrees interested in +her, wondering at the amazing, transforming power of the American +atmosphere. + +"Are your parents English, Antoinette?" he asked her, one morning, +with that easy familiarity which he assumed to all underlings and +minor intellects--an air that could not be resented in him, and +which was usually accepted as a compliment. + +Antoinette, clean and fresh in a white shirtwaist, a black +walking-skirt, a ribbon of black velvet about her neck, and her +long, black hair laid in a heavy braid low over her forehead and +held close by a white celluloid comb, looked at him with pleased +and grateful eyes. She had been used to such different types of +men--the earnest, fiery, excitable, sometimes drunken and swearing +men of her childhood, always striking, marching, praying in the +Catholic churches; and then the men of the business world, crazy +over money, and with no understanding of anything save some few +facts about Chicago and its momentary possibilities. In Cowperwood's +office, taking his letters and hearing him talk in his quick, +genial way with old Laughlin, Sippens, and others, she had learned +more of life than she had ever dreamed existed. He was like a +vast open window out of which she was looking upon an almost +illimitable landscape. + +"No, sir," she replied, dropping her slim, firm, white hand, holding +a black lead-pencil restfully on her notebook. She smiled quite +innocently because she was pleased. + +"I thought not," he said, "and yet you're American enough." + +"I don't know how it is," she said, quite solemnly. "I have a +brother who is quite as American as I am. We don't either of us +look like our father or mother." + +"What does your brother do?" he asked, indifferently. + +"He's one of the weighers at Arneel & Co. He expects to be a +manager sometime." She smiled. + +Cowperwood looked at her speculatively, and after a momentary +return glance she dropped her eyes. Slowly, in spite of herself, +a telltale flush rose and mantled her brown cheeks. It always +did when he looked at her. + +"Take this letter to General Van Sickle," he began, on this occasion +quite helpfully, and in a few minutes she had recovered. She could +not be near Cowperwood for long at a time, however, without being +stirred by a feeling which was not of her own willing. He fascinated +and suffused her with a dull fire. She sometimes wondered whether +a man so remarkable would ever be interested in a girl like her. + +The end of this essential interest, of course, was the eventual +assumption of Antoinette. One might go through all the dissolving +details of days in which she sat taking dictation, receiving +instructions, going about her office duties in a state of apparently +chill, practical, commercial single-mindedness; but it would be +to no purpose. As a matter of fact, without in any way affecting +the preciseness and accuracy of her labor, her thoughts were always +upon the man in the inner office--the strange master who was then +seeing his men, and in between, so it seemed, a whole world of +individuals, solemn and commercial, who came, presented their +cards, talked at times almost interminably, and went away. It was +the rare individual, however, she observed, who had the long +conversation with Cowperwood, and that interested her the more. +His instructions to her were always of the briefest, and he depended +on her native intelligence to supply much that he scarcely more +than suggested. + +"You understand, do you?" was his customary phrase. + +"Yes," she would reply. + +She felt as though she were fifty times as significant here as she +had ever been in her life before. + +The office was clean, hard, bright, like Cowperwood himself. The +morning sun, streaming in through an almost solid glass east front +shaded by pale-green roller curtains, came to have an almost +romantic atmosphere for her. Cowperwood's private office, as in +Philadelphia, was a solid cherry-wood box in which he could shut +himself completely--sight-proof, sound-proof. When the door was +closed it was sacrosanct. He made it a rule, sensibly, to keep +his door open as much as possible, even when he was dictating, +sometimes not. It was in these half-hours of dictation--the door +open, as a rule, for he did not care for too much privacy--that +he and Miss Nowak came closest. After months and months, and +because he had been busy with the other woman mentioned, of whom +she knew nothing, she came to enter sometimes with a sense of +suffocation, sometimes of maidenly shame. It would never have +occurred to her to admit frankly that she wanted Cowperwood to +make love to her. It would have frightened her to have thought +of herself as yielding easily, and yet there was not a detail of +his personality that was not now burned in her brain. His light, +thick, always smoothly parted hair, his wide, clear, inscrutable +eyes, his carefully manicured hands, so full and firm, his fresh +clothing of delicate, intricate patterns--how these fascinated her! +He seemed always remote except just at the moment of doing something, +when, curiously enough, he seemed intensely intimate and near. + +One day, after many exchanges of glances in which her own always +fell sharply--in the midst of a letter--he arose and closed the +half-open door. She did not think so much of that, as a rule--it +had happened before--but now, to-day, because of a studied glance +he had given her, neither tender nor smiling, she felt as though +something unusual were about to happen. Her own body was going +hot and cold by turns--her neck and hands. She had a fine figure, +finer than she realized, with shapely limbs and torso. Her head +had some of the sharpness of the old Greek coinage, and her hair +was plaited as in ancient cut stone. Cowperwood noted it. He +came back and, without taking his seat, bent over her and intimately +took her hand. + +"Antoinette," he said, lifting her gently. + +She looked up, then arose--for he slowly drew her--breathless, the +color gone, much of the capable practicality that was hers completely +eliminated. She felt limp, inert. She pulled at her hand faintly, +and then, lifting her eyes, was fixed by that hard, insatiable +gaze of his. Her head swam--her eyes were filled with a telltale +confusion. + +"Antoinette!" + +"Yes," she murmured. + +"You love me, don't you?" + +She tried to pull herself together, to inject some of her native +rigidity of soul into her air--that rigidity which she always +imagined would never desert her--but it was gone. There came +instead to her a picture of the far Blue Island Avenue neighborhood +from which she emanated--its low brown cottages, and then this +smart, hard office and this strong man. He came out of such a +marvelous world, apparently. A strange foaming seemed to be in +her blood. She was deliriously, deliciously numb and happy. + +"Antoinette!" + +"Oh, I don't know what I think," she gasped. "I-- Oh yes, I do, +I do." + +"I like your name," he said, simply. "Antoinette." And then, +pulling her to him, he slipped his arm about her waist. + +She was frightened, numb, and then suddenly, not so much from shame +as shock, tears rushed to her eyes. She turned and put her hand +on the desk and hung her head and sobbed. + +"Why, Antoinette," he asked, gently, bending over her, are you so +much unused to the world? I thought you said you loved me. Do you +want me to forget all this and go on as before? I can, of course, +if you can, you know." + +He knew that she loved him, wanted him. + +She heard him plainly enough, shaking. + +"Do you?" he said, after a time, giving her moments in which to +recover. + +"Oh, let me cry!" she recovered herself sufficiently to say, quite +wildly. "I don't know why I'm crying. It's just because I'm +nervous, I suppose. Please don't mind me now." + +"Antoinette," he repeated, "look at me! Will you stop?" + +"Oh no, not now. My eyes are so bad." + +"Antoinette! Come, look!" He put his hand under her chin. "See, +I'm not so terrible." + +"Oh," she said, when her eyes met his again, "I--" And then she +folded her arms against his breast while he petted her hand and +held her close. + +"I'm not so bad, Antoinette. It's you as much as it is me. You +do love me, then?" + +"Yes, yes--oh yes!" + +"And you don't mind?" + +"No. It's all so strange." Her face was hidden. + +"Kiss me, then." + +She put up her lips and slipped her arms about him. He held her +close. + +He tried teasingly to make her say why she cried, thinking the +while of what Aileen or Rita would think if they knew, but she +would not at first--admitting later that it was a sense of evil. +Curiously she also thought of Aileen, and how, on occasion, she +had seen her sweep in and out. Now she was sharing with her (the +dashing Mrs. Cowperwood, so vain and superior) the wonder of his +affection. Strange as it may seem, she looked on it now as rather +an honor. She had risen in her own estimation--her sense of life +and power. Now, more than ever before, she knew something of life +because she knew something of love and passion. The future seemed +tremulous with promise. She went back to her machine after a +while, thinking of this. What would it all come to? she wondered, +wildly. You could not have told by her eyes that she had been +crying. Instead, a rich glow in her brown cheeks heightened her +beauty. No disturbing sense of Aileen was involved with all this. +Antoinette was of the newer order that was beginning to privately +question ethics and morals. She had a right to her life, lead +where it would. And to what it would bring her. The feel of +Cowperwood's lips was still fresh on hers. What would the future +reveal to her now? What? + + + + +Chapter XVII + + + +An Overture to Conflict + +The result of this understanding was not so important to Cowperwood +as it was to Antoinette. In a vagrant mood he had unlocked a +spirit here which was fiery, passionate, but in his case hopelessly +worshipful. However much she might be grieved by him, Antoinette, +as he subsequently learned, would never sin against his personal +welfare. Yet she was unwittingly the means of first opening the +flood-gates of suspicion on Aileen, thereby establishing in the +latter's mind the fact of Cowperwood's persistent unfaithfulness. + +The incidents which led up to this were comparatively trivial +--nothing more, indeed, at first than the sight of Miss Nowak and +Cowperwood talking intimately in his office one afternoon when the +others had gone and the fact that she appeared to be a little bit +disturbed by Aileen's arrival. Later came the discovery--though +of this Aileen could not be absolutely sure--of Cowperwood and +Antoinette in a closed carriage one stormy November afternoon in +State Street when he was supposed to be out of the city. She was +coming out of Merrill's store at the time, and just happened to +glance at the passing vehicle, which was running near the curb. +Aileen, although uncertain, was greatly shocked. Could it be +possible that he had not left town? She journeyed to his office +on the pretext of taking old Laughlin's dog, Jennie, a pretty +collar she had found; actually to find if Antoinette were away at +the same time. Could it be possible, she kept asking herself, +that Cowperwood had become interested in his own stenographer? The +fact that the office assumed that he was out of town and that +Antoinette was not there gave her pause. Laughlin quite innocently +informed her that he thought Miss Nowak had gone to one of the +libraries to make up certain reports. It left her in doubt. + +What was Aileen to think? Her moods and aspirations were linked +so closely with the love and success of Cowperwood that she could +not, in spite of herself, but take fire at the least thought of +losing him. He himself wondered sometimes, as he threaded the +mesh-like paths of sex, what she would do once she discovered his +variant conduct. Indeed, there had been little occasional squabbles, +not sharp, but suggestive, when he was trifling about with Mrs. +Kittridge, Mrs. Ledwell, and others. There were, as may be imagined, +from time to time absences, brief and unimportant, which he explained +easily, passional indifferences which were not explained so easily, +and the like; but since his affections were not really involved +in any of those instances, he had managed to smooth the matter +over quite nicely. + +"Why do you say that?" he would demand, when she suggested, apropos +of a trip or a day when she had not been with him, that there might +have been another. "You know there hasn't. If I am going in for +that sort of thing you'll learn it fast enough. Even if I did, it +wouldn't mean that I was unfaithful to you spiritually." + +"Oh, wouldn't it?" exclaimed Aileen, resentfully, and with some +disturbance of spirit. "Well, you can keep your spiritual +faithfulness. I'm not going to be content with any sweet thoughts." + +Cowperwood laughed even as she laughed, for he knew she was right +and he felt sorry for her. At the same time her biting humor +pleased him. He knew that she did not really suspect him of actual +infidelity; he was obviously so fond of her. But she also knew +that he was innately attractive to women, and that there were +enough of the philandering type to want to lead him astray and +make her life a burden. Also that he might prove a very willing +victim. + +Sex desire and its fruition being such an integral factor in the +marriage and every other sex relation, the average woman is prone +to study the periodic manifestations that go with it quite as one +dependent on the weather--a sailor, or example--might study the +barometer. In this Aileen was no exception. She was so beautiful +herself, and had been so much to Cowperwood physically, that she +had followed the corresponding evidences of feeling in him with +the utmost interest, accepting the recurring ebullitions of his +physical emotions as an evidence of her own enduring charm. As +time went on, however--and that was long before Mrs. Sohlberg or +any one else had appeared--the original flare of passion had +undergone a form of subsidence, though not noticeable enough to +be disturbing. Aileen thought and thought, but she did not +investigate. Indeed, because of the precariousness of her own +situation as a social failure she was afraid to do so. + +With the arrival of Mrs. Sohlberg and then of Antoinette Nowak as +factors in the potpourri, the situation became more difficult. +Humanly fond of Aileen as Cowperwood was, and because of his lapses +and her affection, desirous of being kind, yet for the time being +he was alienated almost completely from her. He grew remote +according as his clandestine affairs were drifting or blazing, +without, however, losing his firm grip on his financial affairs, +and Aileen noticed it. It worried her. She was so vain that she +could scarcely believe that Cowperwood could long be indifferent, +and for a while her sentimental interest in Sohlberg's future and +unhappiness of soul beclouded her judgment; but she finally began +to feel the drift of affairs. The pathos of all this is that it +so quickly descends into the realm of the unsatisfactory, the +banal, the pseudo intimate. Aileen noticed it at once. She tried +protestations. "You don't kiss me the way you did once," and then +a little later, "You haven't noticed me hardly for four whole days. +What's the matter?" + +"Oh, I don't know," replied Cowperwood, easily; "I guess I want +you as much as ever. I don't see that I am any different." He +took her in his arms and petted and caressed her; but Aileen was +suspicious, nervous. + +The psychology of the human animal, when confronted by these +tangles, these ripping tides of the heart, has little to do with +so-called reason or logic. It is amazing how in the face of passion +and the affections and the changing face of life all plans and +theories by which we guide ourselves fall to the ground. Here was +Aileen talking bravely at the time she invaded Mrs. Lillian +Cowperwood's domain of the necessity of "her Frank" finding a +woman suitable to his needs, tastes, abilities, but now that the +possibility of another woman equally or possibly better suited to +him was looming in the offing--although she had no idea who it +might be--she could not reason in the same way. Her ox, God wot, +was the one that was being gored. What if he should find some +one whom he could want more than he did her? Dear heaven, how +terrible that would be! What would she do? she asked herself, +thoughtfully. She lapsed into the blues one afternoon--almost +cried--she could scarcely say why. Another time she thought of +all the terrible things she would do, how difficult she would make +it for any other woman who invaded her preserves. However, she +was not sure. Would she declare war if she discovered another? +She knew she would eventually; and yet she knew, too, that if +she did, and Cowperwood were set in his passion, thoroughly +alienated, it would do no good. It would be terrible, but what +could she do to win him back? That was the issue. Once warned, +however, by her suspicious questioning, Cowperwood was more +mechanically attentive than ever. He did his best to conceal his +altered mood--his enthusiasms for Mrs. Sohlberg, his interest in +Antoinette Nowak--and this helped somewhat. + +But finally there was a detectable change. Aileen noticed it first +after they had been back from Europe nearly a year. At this time +she was still interested in Sohlberg, but in a harmlessly flirtatious +way. She thought he might be interesting physically, but would +he be as delightful as Cowperwood? Never! When she felt that +Cowperwood himself might he changing she pulled herself up at +once, and when Antoinette appeared--the carriage incident--Sohlberg +lost his, at best, unstable charm. She began to meditate on what +a terrible thing it would be to lose Cowperwood, seeing that she +had failed to establish herself socially. Perhaps that had something +to do with his defection. No doubt it had. Yet she could not +believe, after all his protestations of affection in Philadelphia, +after all her devotion to him in those dark days of his degradation +and punishment, that he would really turn on her. No, he might +stray momentarily, but if she protested enough, made a scene, +perhaps, he would not feel so free to injure her--he would remember +and be loving and devoted again. After seeing him, or imagining +she had seen him, in the carriage, she thought at first that she +would question him, but later decided that she would wait and watch +more closely. Perhaps he was beginning to run around with other +women. There was safety in numbers--that she knew. Her heart, +her pride, was hurt, but not broken. + + + + +Chapter XVIII + + + +The Clash + +The peculiar personality of Rita Sohlberg was such that by her +very action she ordinarily allayed suspicion, or rather distracted +it. Although a novice, she had a strange ease, courage, or balance +of soul which kept her whole and self-possessed under the most +trying of circumstances. She might have been overtaken in the +most compromising of positions, but her manner would always have +indicated ease, a sense of innocence, nothing unusual, for she had +no sense of moral degradation in this matter--no troublesome +emotion as to what was to flow from a relationship of this kind, +no worry as to her own soul, sin, social opinion, or the like. +She was really interested in art and life--a pagan, in fact. Some +people are thus hardily equipped. It is the most notable attribute +of the hardier type of personalities--not necessarily the most +brilliant or successful. You might have said that her soul was +naively unconscious of the agony of others in loss. She would +have taken any loss to herself with an amazing equableness--some +qualms, of course, but not many--because her vanity and sense of +charm would have made her look forward to something better or as +good. + +She had called on Aileen quite regularly in the past, with or +without Harold, and had frequently driven with the Cowperwoods or +joined them at the theater or elsewhere. She had decided, after +becoming intimate with Cowperwood, to study art again, which was +a charming blind, for it called for attendance at afternoon or +evening classes which she frequently skipped. Besides, since +Harold had more money he was becoming gayer, more reckless and +enthusiastic over women, and Cowperwood deliberately advised her +to encourage him in some liaison which, in case exposure should +subsequently come to them, would effectually tie his hands. + +"Let him get in some affair," Cowperwood told Rita. "We'll put +detectives on his trail and get evidence. He won't have a word +to say." + +"We don't really need to do that," she protested sweetly, naively. +"He's been in enough scrapes as it is. He's given me some of the +letters--"(she pronounced it "lettahs")--"written him." + +"But we'll need actual witnesses if we ever need anything at all. +Just tell me when he's in love again, and I'll do the rest." + +"You know I think," she drawled, amusingly, "that he is now. I +saw him on the street the other day with one of his students--rather +a pretty girl, too." + +Cowperwood was pleased. Under the circumstances he would almost +have been willing--not quite--for Aileen to succumb to Sohlberg +in order to entrap her and make his situation secure. Yet he +really did not wish it in the last analysis--would have been grieved +temporarily if she had deserted him. However, in the case of +Sohlberg, detectives were employed, the new affair with the flighty +pupil was unearthed and sworn to by witnesses, and this, combined +with the "lettahs" held by Rita, constituted ample material wherewith +to "hush up" the musician if ever he became unduly obstreperous. +So Cowperwood and Rita's state was quite comfortable. + +But Aileen, meditating over Antoinette Nowak, was beside herself +with curiosity, doubt, worry. She did not want to injure Cowperwood +in any way after his bitter Philadelphia experience, and yet when +she thought of his deserting her in this way she fell into a great +rage. Her vanity, as much as her love, was hurt. What could she +do to justify or set at rest her suspicions? Watch him personally? +She was too dignified and vain to lurk about street-corners or +offices or hotels. Never! Start a quarrel without additional +evidence--that would be silly. He was too shrewd to give her +further evidence once she spoke. He would merely deny it. She +brooded irritably, recalling after a time, and with an aching +heart, that her father had put detectives on her track once ten +years before, and had actually discovered her relations with +Cowperwood and their rendezvous. Bitter as that memory was +--torturing--yet now the same means seemed not too abhorrent to +employ under the circumstances. No harm had come to Cowperwood +in the former instance, she reasoned to herself--no especial harm +--from that discovery (this was not true), and none would come to +him now. (This also was not true.) But one must forgive a fiery, +passionate soul, wounded to the quick, some errors of judgment. +Her thought was that she would first be sure just what it was her +beloved was doing, and then decide what course to take. But she +knew that she was treading on dangerous ground, and mentally she +recoiled from the consequences which might follow. He might leave +her if she fought him too bitterly. He might treat her as he had +treated his first wife, Lillian. + +She studied her liege lord curiously these days, wondering if it +were true that he had deserted her already, as he had deserted his +first wife thirteen years before, wondering if he could really +take up with a girl as common as Antoinette Nowak--wondering, +wondering, wondering--half afraid and yet courageous. What could +be done with him? If only he still loved her all would be well +yet--but oh! + +The detective agency to which she finally applied, after weeks of +soul-racking suspense, was one of those disturbingly human implements +which many are not opposed to using on occasion, when it is the +only means of solving a troublous problem of wounded feelings or +jeopardized interests. Aileen, being obviously rich, was forthwith +shamefully overcharged; but the services agreed upon were well +performed. To her amazement, chagrin, and distress, after a few +weeks of observation Cowperwood was reported to have affairs not +only with Antoinette Nowak, whom she did suspect, but also with +Mrs. Sohlberg. And these two affairs at one and the same time. +For the moment it left Aileen actually stunned and breathless. + +The significance of Rita Sohlberg to her in this hour was greater +than that of any woman before or after. Of all living things, +women dread women most of all, and of all women the clever and +beautiful. Rita Sohlberg had been growing on Aileen as a personage, +for she had obviously been prospering during this past year, and +her beauty had been amazingly enhanced thereby. Once Aileen had +encountered Rita in a light trap on the Avenue, very handsome and +very new, and she had commented on it to Cowperwood, whose reply +had been: "Her father must be making some money. Sohlberg could +never earn it for her." + +Aileen sympathized with Harold because of his temperament, but she +knew that what Cowperwood said was true. + +Another time, at a box-party at the theater, she had noted the +rich elaborateness of Mrs. Sohlberg's dainty frock, the endless +pleatings of pale silk, the startling charm of the needlework and +the ribbons--countless, rosetted, small--that meant hard work on +the part of some one. + +"How lovely this is," she had commented. + +"Yes," Rita had replied, airily; "I thought, don't you know, my +dressmaker would never get done working on it." + +It had cost, all told, two hundred and twenty dollars, and Cowperwood +had gladly paid the bill. + +Aileen went home at the time thinking of Rita's taste and of how +well she had harmonized her materials to her personality. She was +truly charming. + +Now, however, when it appeared that the same charm that had appealed +to her had appealed to Cowperwood, she conceived an angry, animal +opposition to it all. Rita Sohlberg! Ha! A lot of satisfaction +she'd get knowing as she would soon, that Cowperwood was sharing +his affection for her with Antoinette Nowak--a mere stenographer. +And a lot of satisfaction Antoinette would get--the cheap upstart +--when she learned, as she would, that Cowperwood loved her so +lightly that he would take an apartment for Rita Sohlberg and let +a cheap hotel or an assignation-house do for her. + +But in spite of this savage exultation her thoughts kept coming +back to herself, to her own predicament, to torture and destroy +her. Cowperwood, the liar! Cowperwood, the pretender! Cowperwood, +the sneak! At one moment she conceived a kind of horror of the man +because of all his protestations to her; at the next a rage--bitter, +swelling; at the next a pathetic realization of her own altered +position. Say what one will, to take the love of a man like +Cowperwood away from a woman like Aileen was to leave her high and +dry on land, as a fish out of its native element, to take all the +wind out of her sails--almost to kill her. Whatever position she +had once thought to hold through him, was now jeopardized. Whatever +joy or glory she had had in being Mrs. Frank Algernon Cowperwood, +it was now tarnished. She sat in her room, this same day after +the detectives had given their report, a tired look in her eyes, +the first set lines her pretty mouth had ever known showing about +it, her past and her future whirling painfully and nebulously in +her brain. Suddenly she got up, and, seeing Cowperwood's picture +on her dresser, his still impressive eyes contemplating her, she +seized it and threw it on the floor, stamping on his handsome face +with her pretty foot, and raging at him in her heart. The dog! +The brute! Her brain was full of the thought of Rita's white arms +about him, of his lips to hers. The spectacle of Rita's fluffy +gowns, her enticing costumes, was in her eyes. Rita should not +have him; she should not have anything connected with him, nor, +for that matter, Antoinette Nowak, either--the wretched upstart, +the hireling. To think he should stoop to an office stenographer! +Once on that thought, she decided that he should not be allowed +to have a woman as an assistant any more. He owed it to her to +love her after all she had done for him, the coward, and to let +other women alone. Her brain whirled with strange thoughts. She +was really not sane in her present state. She was so wrought up +by her prospective loss that she could only think of rash, impossible, +destructive things to do. She dressed swiftly, feverishly, and, +calling a closed carriage from the coach-house, ordered herself +to be driven to the New Arts Building. She would show this rosy +cat of a woman, this smiling piece of impertinence, this she-devil, +whether she would lure Cowperwood away. She meditated as she rode. +She would not sit back and be robbed as Mrs. Cowperwood had been +by her. Never! He could not treat her that way. She would die +first! She would kill Rita Sohlberg and Antoinette Nowak and +Cowperwood and herself first. She would prefer to die that way +rather than lose his love. Oh yes, a thousand times! Fortunately, +Rita Sohlberg was not at the New Arts Building, or Sohlberg, either. +They had gone to a reception. Nor was she at the apartment on the +North Side, where, under the name of Jacobs, as Aileen had been +informed by the detectives, she and Cowperwood kept occasional +tryst. Aileen hesitated for a moment, feeling it useless to wait, +then she ordered the coachman to drive to her husband's office. +It was now nearly five o'clock. Antoinette and Cowperwood had +both gone, but she did not know it. She changed her mind, however, +before she reached the office--for it was Rita Sohlberg she wished +to reach first--and ordered her coachman to drive back to the +Sohlberg studio. But still they had not returned. In a kind of +aimless rage she went home, wondering how she should reach Rita +Sohlberg first and alone. Then, to her savage delight, the game +walked into her bag. The Sohlbergs, returning home at six o'clock +from some reception farther out Michigan Avenue, had stopped, at +the wish of Harold, merely to pass the time of day with Mrs. +Cowperwood. Rita was exquisite in a pale-blue and lavender +concoction, with silver braid worked in here and there. Her +gloves and shoes were pungent bits of romance, her hat a dream of +graceful lines. At the sight of her, Aileen, who was still in the +hall and had opened the door herself, fairly burned to seize her +by the throat and strike her; but she restrained herself sufficiently +to say, "Come in." She still had sense enough and self-possession +enough to conceal her wrath and to close the door. Beside his +wife Harold was standing, offensively smug and inefficient in the +fashionable frock-coat and silk hat of the time, a restraining +influence as yet. He was bowing and smiling: + +"Oh." This sound was neither an "oh" nor an "ah," but a kind of +Danish inflected "awe," which was usually not unpleasing to hear. +"How are you, once more, Meeses Cowperwood? It eez sudge a pleasure +to see you again--awe." + +"Won't you two just go in the reception-room a moment," said Aileen, +almost hoarsely. "I'll be right in. I want to get something." +Then, as an afterthought, she called very sweetly: "Oh, Mrs. +Sohlberg, won't you come up to my room for a moment? I have something +I want to show you. + +Rita responded promptly. She always felt it incumbent upon her +to be very nice to Aileen. + +"We have only a moment to stay," she replied, archly and sweetly, +and coming out in the hall, "but I'll come up." + +Aileen stayed to see her go first, then followed up-stairs swiftly, +surely, entered after Rita, and closed the door. With a courage +and rage born of a purely animal despair, she turned and locked +it; then she wheeled swiftly, her eyes lit with a savage fire, her +cheeks pale, but later aflame, her hands, her fingers working in +a strange, unconscious way. + +"So," she said, looking at Rita, and coming toward her quickly and +angrily, "you'll steal my husband, will you? You'll live in a +secret apartment, will you? You'll come here smiling and lying to +me, will you? You beast! You cat! You prostitute! I'll show you +now! You tow-headed beast! I know you now for what you are! I'll +teach you once for all! Take that, and that, and that!" + +Suiting action to word, Aileen had descended upon her whirlwind, +animal fashion, striking, scratching, choking, tearing her visitor's +hat from her head, ripping the laces from her neck, beating her +in the face, and clutching violently at her hair and throat to +choke and mar her beauty if she could. For the moment she was +really crazy with rage. + +By the suddenness of this onslaught Rita Sohlberg was taken back +completely. It all came so swiftly, so terribly, she scarcely +realized what was happening before the storm was upon her. There +was no time for arguments, pleas, anything. Terrified, shamed, +nonplussed, she went down quite limply under this almost lightning +attack. When Aileen began to strike her she attempted in vain to +defend herself, uttering at the same time piercing screams which +could be heard throughout the house. She screamed shrilly, +strangely, like a wild dying animal. On the instant all her fine, +civilized poise had deserted her. From the sweetness and delicacy +of the reception atmosphere--the polite cooings, posturings, and +mouthings so charming to contemplate, so alluring in her--she had +dropped on the instant to that native animal condition that shows +itself in fear. Her eyes had a look of hunted horror, her lips +and cheeks were pale and drawn. She retreated in a staggering, +ungraceful way; she writhed and squirmed, screaming in the strong +clutch of the irate and vigorous Aileen. + +Cowperwood entered the hall below just before the screams began. +He had followed the Sohlbergs almost immediately from his office, +and, chancing to glance in the reception-room, he had observed +Sohlberg smiling, radiant, an intangible air of self-ingratiating, +social, and artistic sycophancy about him, his long black frock-coat +buttoned smoothly around his body, his silk hat still in his hands. + +"Awe, how do you do, Meezter Cowperwood," he was beginning to say, +his curly head shaking in a friendly manner, "I'm soa glad to see +you again" when--but who can imitate a scream of terror? We have +no words, no symbols even, for those essential sounds of fright +and agony. They filled the hall, the library, the reception-room, +the distant kitchen even, and basement with a kind of vibrant +terror. + +Cowperwood, always the man of action as opposed to nervous cogitation, +braced up on the instant like taut wire. What, for heaven's sake, +could that be? What a terrible cry! Sohlberg the artist, responding +like a chameleon to the various emotional complexions of life, +began to breathe stertorously, to blanch, to lose control of himself. + +"My God!" he exclaimed, throwing up his hands, "that's Rita! She's +up-stairs in your wife's room! Something must have happened. Oh--" +On the instant he was quite beside himself, terrified, shaking, +almost useless. Cowperwood, on the contrary, without a moment's +hesitation had thrown his coat to the floor, dashed up the stairs, +followed by Sohlberg. What could it be? Where was Aileen? As he +bounded upward a clear sense of something untoward came over him; +it was sickening, terrifying. Scream! Scream! Scream! came the +sounds. "Oh, my God! don't kill me! Help! Help!" SCREAM--this +last a long, terrified, ear-piercing wail. + +Sohlberg was about to drop from heart failure, he was so frightened. +His face was an ashen gray. Cowperwood seized the door-knob +vigorously and, finding the door locked, shook, rattled, and banged +at it. + +"Aileen!" he called, sharply. "Aileen! What's the matter in there? +Open this door, Aileen!" + +"Oh, my God! Oh, help! help! Oh, mercy--o-o-o-o-oh!" It was the +moaning voice of Rita. + +"I'll show you, you she-devil!" he heard Aileen calling. "I'll +teach you, you beast! You cat, you prostitute! There! there! there!" + +"Aileen!" he called, hoarsely. "Aileen!" Then, getting no response, +and the screams continuing, he turned angrily. + +"Stand back!" he exclaimed to Sohlberg, who was moaning helplessly. +"Get me a chair, get me a table--anything." The butler ran to obey, +but before he could return Cowperwood had found an implement. +"Here!" he said, seizing a long, thin, heavily carved and heavily +wrought oak chair which stood at the head of the stairs on the +landing. He whirled it vigorously over his head. Smash! The sound +rose louder than the screams inside. + +Smash! The chair creaked and almost broke, but the door did not +give. + +Smash! The chair broke and the door flew open. He had knocked the +lock loose and had leaped in to where Aileen, kneeling over Rita +on the floor, was choking and beating her into insensibility. +Like an animal he was upon her. + +"Aileen," he shouted, fiercely, in a hoarse, ugly, guttural voice, +"you fool! You idiot--let go! What the devil's the matter with +you? What are you trying to do? Have you lost your mind?--you crazy +idiot!" + +He seized her strong hands and ripped them apart. He fairly dragged +her back, half twisting and half throwing her over his knee, loosing +her clutching hold. She was so insanely furious that she still +struggled and cried, saying: "Let me at her! Let me at her! I'll +teach her! Don't you try to hold me, you dog! I'll show you, too, +you brute--oh--" + +"Pick up that woman," called Cowperwood, firmly, to Sohlberg and +the butler, who had entered. "Get her out of here quick! My wife +has gone crazy. Get her out of here, I tell you! This woman doesn't +know what she's doing. Take her out and get a doctor. What sort +of a hell's melee is this, anyway?" + +"Oh," moaned Rita, who was torn and fainting, almost unconscious +from sheer terror. + +"I'll kill her!" screamed Aileen. "I'll murder her! I'll murder +you too, you dog! Oh"--she began striking at him--"I'll teach you +how to run around with other women, you dog, you brute!" + +Cowperwood merely gripped her hands and shook her vigorously, +forcefully. + +"What the devil has got into you, anyway, you fool?" he said to +her, bitterly, as they carried Rita out. "What are you trying to +do, anyway--murder her? Do you want the police to come in here? +Stop your screaming and behave yourself, or I'll shove a handkerchief +in your mouth! Stop, I tell you! Stop! Do you hear me? This is +enough, you fool!" He clapped his hand over her mouth, pressing +it tight and forcing her back against him. He shook her brutally, +angrily. He was very strong. "Now will you stop," he insisted, +"or do you want me to choke you quiet? I will, if you don't. +You're out of your mind. Stop, I tell you! So this is the way you +carry on when things don't go to suit you?" She was sobbing, +struggling, moaning, half screaming, quite beside herself. + +"Oh, you crazy fool!" he said, swinging her round, and with an +effort getting out a handkerchief, which he forced over her face +and in her mouth. "There," he said, relievedly, "now will you +shut up?" holding her tight in an iron grip, he let her struggle +and turn, quite ready to put an end to her breathing if necessary. + +Now that he had conquered her, he continued to hold her tightly, +stooping beside her on one knee, listening and meditating. Hers +was surely a terrible passion. From some points of view he could +not blame her. Great was her provocation, great her love. He +knew her disposition well enough to have anticipated something of +this sort. Yet the wretchedness, shame, scandal of the terrible +affair upset his customary equilibrium. To think any one should +give way to such a storm as this! To think that Aileen should do +it! To think that Rita should have been so mistreated! It was not +at all unlikely that she was seriously injured, marred for life +--possibly even killed. The horror of that! The ensuing storm of +public rage! A trial! His whole career gone up in one terrific +explosion of woe, anger, death! Great God! + +He called the butler to him by a nod of his head, when the latter, +who had gone out with Rita, hurried back. + +"How is she?" he asked, desperately. "Seriously hurt?" + +"No, sir; I think not. I believe she's just fainted. She'll be +all right in a little while, sir. Can I be of any service, sir?" + +Ordinarily Cowperwood would have smiled at such a scene. Now he +was cold, sober. + +"Not now," he replied, with a sigh of relief, still holding Aileen +firmly. "Go out and close the door. Call a doctor. Wait in the +hall. When he comes, call me." + +Aileen, conscious of things being done for Rita, of sympathy being +extended to her, tried to get up, to scream again; but she couldn't; +her lord and master held her in an ugly hold. When the door was +closed he said again: "Now, Aileen, will you hush? Will you let +me get up and talk to you, or must we stay here all night? Do you +want me to drop you forever after to-night? I understand all about +this, but I am in control now, and I am going to stay so. You +will come to your senses and be reasonable, or I will leave you +to-morrow as sure as I am here." His voice rang convincingly. +"Now, shall we talk sensibly, or will you go on making a fool of +yourself--disgracing me, disgracing the house, making yourself +and myself the laughing-stock of the servants, the neighborhood, +the city? This is a fine showing you've made to-day. Good God! A +fine showing, indeed! A brawl in this house, a fight! I thought +you had better sense--more self-respect--really I did. You have +seriously jeopardized my chances here in Chicago. You have seriously +injured and possibly killed a woman. You could even be hanged for +that. Do you hear me?" + +"Oh, let them hang me," groaned Aileen. "I want to die." + +He took away his hand from her mouth, loosened his grip upon her +arms, and let her get to her feet. She was still torrential, +impetuous, ready to upbraid him, but once standing she was confronted +by him, cold, commanding, fixing her with a fishy eye. He wore a +look now she had never seen on his face before--a hard, wintry, +dynamic flare, which no one but his commercial enemies, and only +those occasionally, had seen. + +"Now stop!" he exclaimed. "Not one more word! Not one! Do you +hear me?" + +She wavered, quailed, gave way. All the fury of her tempestuous +soul fell, as the sea falls under a lapse of wind. She had had +it in heart, on her lips, to cry again, "You dog! you brute!" and +a hundred other terrible, useless things, but somehow, under the +pressure of his gaze, the hardness of his heart, the words on her +lips died away. She looked at him uncertainly for a moment, then, +turning, she threw herself on the bed near by, clutched her cheeks +and mouth and eyes, and, rocking back and forth in an agony of +woe, she began to sob: + +"Oh, my God! my God! My heart! My life! I want to die! I want to +die!" + +Standing there watching her, there suddenly came to Cowperwood a +keen sense of her soul hurt, her heart hurt, and he was moved. + +"Aileen," he said, after a moment or two, coming over and touching +her quite gently, "Aileen! Don't cry so. I haven't left you yet. +Your life isn't utterly ruined. Don't cry. This is bad business, +but perhaps it is not without remedy. Come now, pull yourself +together, Aileen!" + +For answer she merely rocked and moaned, uncontrolled and +uncontrollable. + +Being anxious about conditions elsewhere, he turned and stepped +out into the hall. He must make some show for the benefit of the +doctor and the servants; he must look after Rita, and offer some +sort of passing explanation to Sohlherg. + +"Here," he called to a passing servant, "shut that door and watch +it. If Mrs. Cowperwood comes out call me instantly." + + + + +Chapter XIX + + + +"Hell Hath No Fury--" + +Rita was not dead by any means--only seriously bruised, scratched, +and choked. Her scalp was cut in one place. Aileen had repeatedly +beaten her head on the floor, and this might have resulted seriously +if Cowperwood had not entered as quickly as he had. Sohlberg for +the moment--for some little time, in fact--was under the impression +that Aileen had truly lost her mind, had suddenly gone crazy, and +that those shameless charges he had heard her making were the +emanations of a disordered brain. Nevertheless the things she had +said haunted him. He was in a bad state himself--almost a subject +for the doctor. His lips were bluish, his cheeks blanched. Rita +had been carried into an adjoining bedroom and laid upon a bed; +cold water, ointments, a bottle of arnica had been procured; and +when Cowperwood appeared she was conscious and somewhat better. +But she was still very weak and smarting from her wounds, both +mental and physical. When the doctor arrived he had been told +that a lady, a guest, had fallen down-stairs; when Cowperwood came +in the physician was dressing her wounds. + +As soon as he had gone Cowperwood said to the maid in attendance, +"Go get me some hot water." As the latter disappeared he bent over +and kissed Rita's bruised lips, putting his finger to his own in +warning sign. + +Rita," he asked, softly, "are you fully conscious?" + +She nodded weakly. + +"Listen, then," he said, bending over and speaking slowly. "Listen +carefully. Pay strict attention to what I'm saying. You must +understand every word, and do as I tell you. You are not seriously +injured. You will be all right. This will blow over. I have +sent for another doctor to call on you at your studio. Your +husband has gone for some fresh clothes. He will come back in a +little while. My carriage will take you home when you are a little +stronger. You mustn't worry. Everything will be all right, but +you must deny everything, do you hear? Everything! In so far as +you know, Mrs. Cowperwood is insane. I will talk to your husband +to-morrow. I will send you a trained nurse. Meantime you must +be careful of what you say and how you say it. Be perfectly calm. +Don't worry. You are perfectly safe here, and you will be there. +Mrs. Cowperwood will not trouble you any more. I will see to that. +I am so sorry; but I love you. I am near you all the while. You +must not let this make any difference. You will not see her any +more." + +Still he knew that it would make a difference. + +Reassured as to Rita's condition, he went back to Aileen's room +to plead with her again--to soothe her if he could. He found her +up and dressing, a new thought and determination in her mind. +Since she had thrown herself on the bed sobbing and groaning, her +mood had gradually changed; she began to reason that if she could +not dominate him, could not make him properly sorry, she had better +leave. It was evident, she thought, that he did not love her any +more, seeing that his anxiety to protect Rita had been so great; +his brutality in restraining her so marked; and yet she did not +want to believe that this was so. He had been so wonderful to her +in times past. She had not given up all hope of winning a victory +over him, and these other women--she loved him too much--but only +a separation would do it. That might bring him to his senses. +She would get up, dress, and go down-town to a hotel. He should +not see her any more unless he followed her. She was satisfied +that she had broken up the liaison with Rita Sohlberg, anyway for +the present, and as for Antoinette Nowak, she would attend to her +later. Her brain and her heart ached. She was so full of woe and +rage, alternating, that she could not cry any more now. She stood +before her mirror trying with trembling fingers to do over her +toilet and adjust a street-costume. Cowperwood was disturbed, +nonplussed at this unexpected sight. + +"Aileen," he said, finally, coming up behind her, "can't you and +I talk this thing over peacefully now? You don't want to do anything +that you'll be sorry for. I don't want you to. I'm sorry. You +don't really believe that I've ceased to love you, do you? I +haven't, you know. This thing isn't as bad as it looks. I should +think you would have a little more sympathy with me after all we +have been through together. You haven't any real evidence of +wrong-doing on which to base any such outburst as this." + +"Oh, haven't I?" she exclaimed, turning from the mirror, where, +sorrowfully and bitterly, she was smoothing her red-gold hair. +Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes red. Just now she seemed as +remarkable to him as she had seemed that first day, years ago, +when in a red cape he had seen her, a girl of sixteen, running up +the steps of her father's house in Philadelphia. She was so +wonderful then. It mellowed his mood toward her. + +"That's all you know about it, you liar!" she declared. "It's +little you know what I know. I haven't had detectives on your +trail for weeks for nothing. You sneak! You'd like to smooth +around now and find out what I know. Well, I know enough, let me +tell you that. You won't fool me any longer with your Rita Sohlbergs +and your Antoinette Nowaks and your apartments and your houses of +assignation. I know what you are, you brute! And after all your +protestations of love for me! Ugh!" + +She turned fiercely to her task while Cowperwood stared at her, +touched by her passion, moved by her force. It was fine to see +what a dramatic animal she was--really worthy of him in many ways. + +"Aileen," he said, softly, hoping still to ingratiate himself by +degrees," please don't be so bitter toward me. Haven't you any +understanding of how life works--any sympathy with it? I thought +you were more generous, more tender. I'm not so bad." + +He eyed her thoughtfully, tenderly, hoping to move her through her +love for him. + +"Sympathy! Sympathy!" She turned on him blazing. "A lot you know +about sympathy! I suppose I didn't give you any sympathy when you +were in the penitentiary in Philadelphia, did I? A lot of good it +did me--didn't it? Sympathy! Bah! To have you come out here to +Chicago and take up with a lot of prostitutes--cheap stenographers +and wives of musicians! You have given me a lot of sympathy, haven't +you?--with that woman lying in the next room to prove it!" + +She smoothed her lithe waist and shook her shoulders preparatory +to putting on a hat and adjusting her wrap. She proposed to go +just as she was, and send Fadette back for all her belongings. + +"Aileen," he pleaded, determined to have his way, "I think you're +very foolish. Really I do. There is no occasion for all this--none +in the world. Here you are talking at the top of your voice, +scandalizing the whole neighborhood, fighting, leaving the house. +It's abominable. I don't want you to do it. You love me yet, +don't you? You know you do. I know you don't mean all you say. +You can't. You really don't believe that I have ceased to love +you, do you, Aileen?" + +"Love!" fired Aileen. "A lot you know about love! A lot you have +ever loved anybody, you brute! I know how you love. I thought you +loved me once. Humph! I see how you loved me--just as you've loved +fifty other women, as you love that snippy little Rita Sohlberg +in the next room--the cat!--the dirty little beast!--the way you +love Antoinette Nowak--a cheap stenographer! Bah! You don't know +what the word means." And yet her voice trailed off into a kind +of sob and her eyes filled with tears, hot, angry, aching. +Cowperwood saw them and came over, hoping in some way to take +advantage of them. He was truly sorry now--anxious to make her +feel tender toward him once more. + +"Aileen," he pleaded, "please don't be so bitter. You shouldn't +be so hard on me. I'm not so bad. Aren't you going to be +reasonable?" He put out a smoothing hand, but she jumped away. + +"Don't you touch me, you brute!" she exclaimed, angrily. "Don't +you lay a hand on me. I don't want you to come near me. I'll not +live with you. I'll not stay in the same house with you and your +mistresses. Go and live with your dear, darling Rita on the North +Side if you want to. I don't care. I suppose you've been in the +next room comforting her--the beast! I wish I had killed her--Oh, +God!" She tore at her throat in a violent rage, trying to adjust +a button. + +Cowperwood was literally astonished. Never had he seen such an +outburst as this. He had not believed Aileen to be capable of it. +He could not help admiring her. Nevertheless he resented the +brutality of her assault on Rita and on his own promiscuous tendency, +and this feeling vented itself in one last unfortunate remark. + +"I wouldn't be so hard on mistresses if I were you, Aileen," he +ventured, pleadingly. "I should have thought your own experience +would have--" + +He paused, for he saw on the instant that he was making a grave +mistake. This reference to her past as a mistress was crucial. +On the instant she straightened up, and her eyes filled with a +great pain. "So that's the way you talk to me, is it?" she asked. +"I knew it! I knew it! I knew it would come!" + +She turned to a tall chest of drawers as high as her breasts, laden +with silverware, jewel-boxes, brushes and combs, and, putting her +arms down, she laid her head upon them and began to cry. This was +the last straw. He was throwing up her lawless girlhood love to +her as an offense. + +"Oh!" she sobbed, and shook in a hopeless, wretched paroxysm. +Cowperwood came over quickly. He was distressed, pained. "I +didn't mean that, Aileen," he explained. "I didn't mean it in +that way--not at all. You rather drew that out of me; but I didn't +mean it as a reproach. You were my mistress, but good Lord, I +never loved you any the less for that--rather more. You know I +did. I want you to believe that; it's true. These other matters +haven't been so important to me--they really haven't--" + +He looked at her helplessly as she moved away to avoid him; he was +distressed, nonplussed, immensely sorry. As he walked to the +center of the room again she suddenly suffered a great revulsion +of feeling, but only in the direction of more wrath. This was too +much. + +"So this is the way you talk to me," she exclaimed, "after all I +have done for you! You say that to me after I waited for you and +cried over you when you were in prison for nearly two years? Your +mistress! That's my reward, is it? Oh!" + +Suddenly she observed her jewel-case, and, resenting all the gifts +he had given her in Philadelphia, in Paris, in Rome, here in +Chicago, she suddenly threw open the lid and, grabbing the contents +by handfuls, began to toss them toward him--to actually throw them +in his face. Out they came, handfuls of gauds that he had given +her in real affection: a jade necklace and bracelet of pale +apple-green set in spun gold, with clasps of white ivory; a necklace +of pearls, assorted as to size and matched in color, that shone +with a tinted, pearly flame in the evening light; a handful of +rings and brooches, diamonds, rubies, opals, amethysts; a dog-collar +of emeralds, and a diamond hair-ornament. She flung them at him +excitedly, strewing the floor, striking him on the neck, the face, +the hands. "Take that! and that! and that! There they are! I don't +want anything more of yours. I don't want anything more to do +with you. I don't want anything that belongs to you. Thank God, +I have money enough of my own to live on! I hate you--I despise +you--I never want to see you any more. Oh--" And, trying to think +of something more, but failing, she dashed swiftly down the hall +and down the stairs, while he stood for just one moment overwhelmed. +Then he hurried after. + +"Aileen!" he called. "Aileen, come back here! Don't go, Aileen!" +But she only hurried faster; she opened and closed the door, and +actually ran out in the dark, her eyes wet, her heart bursting. +So this was the end of that youthful dream that had begun so +beautifully. She was no better than the others--just one of his +mistresses. To have her past thrown up to her as a defense for +the others! To be told that she was no better than they! This was +the last straw. She choked and sobbed as she walked, vowing never +to return, never to see him any more. But as she did so Cowperwood +came running after, determined for once, as lawless as he was, +that this should not be the end of it all. She had loved him, he +reflected. She had laid every gift of passion and affection on +the altar of her love. It wasn't fair, really. She must be made +to stay. He caught up at last, reaching her under the dark of the +November trees. + +"Aileen," he said, laying hold of her and putting his arms around +her waist. "Aileen, dearest, this is plain madness. It is insanity. +You're not in your right mind. Don't go! Don't leave me! I love +you! Don't you know I do? Can't you really see that? Don't run +away like this, and don't cry. I do love you, and you know it. +I always shall. Come back now. Kiss me. I'll do better. Really +I will. Give me another chance. Wait and see. Come now--won't +you? That's my girl, my Aileen. Do come. Please!" + +She pulled on, but he held her, smoothing her arms, her neck, her +face. + +"Aileen!" he entreated. + +She tugged so that he was finally compelled to work her about into +his arms; then, sobbing, she stood there agonized but happy once +more, in a way. + +"But I don't want to," she protested. "You don't love me any more. +Let me go." + +But he kept hold of her, urging, and finally she said, her head +upon his shoulder as of old, "Don't make me come back to-night. +I don't want to. I can't. Let me go down-town. I'll come back +later, maybe." + +"Then I'll go with you," he said, endearingly. "It isn't right. +There are a lot of things I should be doing to stop this scandal, +but I'll go." + +And together they sought a street-car. + + + + +Chapter XX + + + +"Man and Superman" + +It is a sad commentary on all save the most chemic unions--those +dark red flowers of romance that bloom most often only for a tragic +end--that they cannot endure the storms of disaster that are wont +to overtake them. A woman like Rita Sohlberg, with a seemingly +urgent feeling for Cowperwood, was yet not so charmed by him but +that this shock to her pride was a marked sedative. The crushing +weight of such an exposure as this, the Homeric laughter inherent, +if not indicated in the faulty planning, the failure to take into +account beforehand all the possibilities which might lead to such +a disaster, was too much for her to endure. She was stung almost +to desperation, maddened, at the thought of the gay, idle way in +which she had walked into Mrs. Cowperwood's clutches and been made +into a spectacle and a laughing-stock by her. What a brute she +was--what a demon! Her own physical weakness under the circumstances +was no grief to her--rather a salve to her superior disposition; +but just the same she had been badly beaten, her beauty turned +into a ragamuffin show, and that was enough. This evening, in the +Lake Shore Sanitarium, where she had been taken, she had but one +thought--to get away when it should all be over and rest her wearied +brain. She did not want to see Sohlberg any more; she did not +want to see Cowperwood any more. Already Harold, suspicious and +determined to get at the truth, was beginning to question her as +to the strangeness of Aileen's attack--her probable reason. When +Cowperwood was announced, Sohlberg's manner modified somewhat, for +whatever his suspicions were, he was not prepared to quarrel with +this singular man as yet. + +"I am so sorry about this unfortunate business," said Cowperwood, +coming in with brisk assurance. "I never knew my wife to become +so strangely unbalanced before. It was most fortunate that I +arrived when I did. I certainly owe you both every amend that can +be made. I sincerely hope, Mrs. Sohlberg, that you are not seriously +injured. If there is anything I can possibly do--anything either +of you can suggest"--he looked around solicitously at Sohlberg--"I +shall only be too glad to do it. How would it do for you to take +Mrs. Sohlberg away for a little while for a rest? I shall so gladly +pay all expenses in connection with her recovery." + +Sohlberg, brooding and heavy, remained unresponsive, smoldering; +Rita, cheered by Cowperwood's presence, but not wholly relieved +by any means, was questioning and disturbed. She was afraid there +was to be a terrific scene between them. She declared she was +better and would be all right--that she did not need to go away, +but that she preferred to be alone. + +"It's very strange," said Sohlberg, sullenly, after a little while. +"I daunt onderstand it! I daunt onderstand it at all. Why should +she do soach a thing? Why should she say soach things? Here we +have been the best of friends opp to now. Then suddenly she attacks +my wife and sais all these strange things." + +"But I have assured you, my dear Mr. Sohlberg, that my wife was +not in her right mind. She has been subject to spells of this +kind in the past, though never to anything so violent as this +to-night. Already she has recovered her normal state, and she +does not remember. But, perhaps, if we are going to discuss things +now we had better go out in the hall. Your wife will need all the +rest she can get." + +Once outside, Cowperwood continued with brilliant assurance: "Now, +my dear Sohlberg, what is it I can say? What is it you wish me to +do? My wife has made a lot of groundless charges, to say nothing +of injuring your wife most seriously and shamefully. I cannot +tell you, as I have said, how sorry I am. I assure you Mrs. +Cowperwood is suffering from a gross illusion. There is absolutely +nothing to do, nothing to say, so far as I can see, but to let the +whole matter drop. Don't you agree with me?" + +Harold was twisting mentally in the coils of a trying situation. +His own position, as he knew, was not formidable. Rita had +reproached him over and over for infidelity. He began to swell +and bluster at once. + +"That is all very well for you to say, Mr. Cowperwood," he commented, +defiantly, "but how about me? Where do I come in? I daunt know +what to theenk yet. It ees very strange. Supposing what your +wife sais was true? Supposing my wife has been going around weeth +some one? That ees what I want to find out. Eef she has! Eef eet +is what I theenk it ees I shall--I shall--I daunt know what I shall +do. I am a very violent man." + +Cowperwood almost smiled, concerned as he was over avoiding +publicity; he had no fear of Sohlberg physically. + +"See here," he exclaimed, suddenly, looking sharply at the musician +and deciding to take the bull by the horns, "you are in quite as +delicate a situation as I am, if you only stop to think. This +affair, if it gets out, will involve not only me and Mrs. Cowperwood, +but yourself and your wife, and if I am not mistaken, I think your +own affairs are not in any too good shape. You cannot blacken +your wife without blackening yourself--that is inevitable. None +of us is exactly perfect. For myself I shall be compelled to prove +insanity, and I can do this easily. If there is anything in your +past which is not precisely what it should be it could not long +be kept a secret. If you are willing to let the matter drop I +will make handsome provision for you both; if, instead, you choose +to make trouble, to force this matter into the daylight, I shall +leave no stone unturned to protect myself, to put as good a face +on this matter as I can." + +"What!" exclaimed Sohlberg. "You threaten me? You try to frighten +me after your wife charges that you have been running around weeth +my wife? You talk about my past! I like that. Haw! We shall see +about dis! What is it you knaw about me?" + +"Well, Mr. Sohlberg," rejoined Cowperwood, calmly, "I know, for +instance, that for a long while your wife has not loved you, that +you have been living on her as any pensioner might, that you have +been running around with as many as six or seven women in as many +years or less. For months I have been acting as your wife's +financial adviser, and in that time, with the aid of detectives, +I have learned of Anna Stelmak, Jessie Laska, Bertha Reese, Georgia +Du Coin--do I need to say any more? As a matter of fact, I have a +number of your letters in my possession." + +"Saw that ees it!" exclaimed Sohlberg, while Cowperwood eyed him +fixedly. "You have been running around weeth my wife? Eet ees +true, then. A fine situation! And you come here now weeth these +threats, these lies to booldoze me. Haw! We weel see about them. +We weel see what I can do. Wait teel I can consult a lawyer first. +Then we weel see!" + +Cowperwood surveyed him coldly, angrily. "What an ass!" he thought. + +"See here," he said, urging Sohlberg, for privacy's sake, to come +down into the lower hall, and then into the street before the +sanitarium, where two gas-lamps were fluttering fitfully in the +dark and wind, "I see very plainly that you are bent on making +trouble. It is not enough that I have assured you that there is +nothing in this--that I have given you my word. You insist on +going further. Very well, then. Supposing for argument's sake +that Mrs. Cowperwood was not insane; that every word she said was +true; that I had been misconducting myself with your wife? What +of it? What will you do?" + +He looked at Sohlberg smoothly, ironically, while the latter flared +up. + +"Haw!" he shouted, melodramatically. "Why, I would keel you, +that's what I would do. I would keel her. I weel make a terrible +scene. Just let me knaw that this is so, and then see!" + +"Exactly," replied Cowperwood, grimly. "I thought so. I believe +you. For that reason I have come prepared to serve you in just +the way you wish." He reached in his coat and took out two small +revolvers, which he had taken from a drawer at home for this very +purpose. They gleamed in the dark. "Do you see these?" he +continued. "I am going to save you the trouble of further +investigation, Mr. Sohlberg. Every word that Mrs. Cowperwood said +to-night--and I am saying this with a full understanding of what +this means to you and to me--is true. She is no more insane than +I am. Your wife has been living in an apartment with me on the +North Side for months, though you cannot prove that. She does not +love you, but me. Now if you want to kill me here is a gun." He +extended his hand. "Take your choice. If I am to die you might +as well die with me." + +He said it so coolly, so firmly, that Sohlberg, who was an innate +coward, and who had no more desire to die than any other healthy +animal, paled. The look of cold steel was too much. The hand +that pressed them on him was hard and firm. He took hold of one, +but his fingers trembled. The steely, metallic voice in his ear +was undermining the little courage that he had. Cowperwood by now +had taken on the proportions of a dangerous man--the lineaments +of a demon. He turned away mortally terrified. + +"My God!" he exclaimed, shaking like a leaf. "You want to keel +me, do you? I weel not have anything to do with you! I weel not +talk to you! I weel see my lawyer. I weel talk to my wife first." + +"Oh, no you won't," replied Cowperwood, intercepting him as he +turned to go and seizing him firmly by the arm. "I am not going +to have you do anything of the sort. I am not going to kill you +if you are not going to kill me; but I am going to make you listen +to reason for once. Now here is what else I have to say, and then +I am through. I am not unfriendly to you. I want to do you a +good turn, little as I care for you. To begin with, there is +nothing in those charges my wife made, not a thing. I merely said +what I did just now to see if you were in earnest. You do not +love your wife any more. She doesn't love you. You are no good +to her. Now, I have a very friendly proposition to make to you. +If you want to leave Chicago and stay away three years or more, I +will see that you are paid five thousand dollars every year on +January first--on the nail--five thousand dollars! Do you hear? +Or you can stay here in Chicago and hold your tongue and I will +make it three thousand--monthly or yearly, just as you please. +But--and this is what I want you to remember--if you don't get out +of town or hold your tongue, if you make one single rash move +against me, I will kill you, and I will kill you on sight. Now, +I want you to go away from here and behave yourself. Leave your +wife alone. Come and see me in a day or two--the money is ready +for you any time. He paused while Sohlberg stared--his eyes round +and glassy. This was the most astonishing experience of his life. +This man was either devil or prince, or both. "Good God!" he +thought. "He will do that, too. He will really kill me." Then +the astounding alternative--five thousand dollars a year--came to +his mind. Well, why not? His silence gave consent. + +"If I were you I wouldn't go up-stairs again to-night," continued +Cowperwood, sternly. "Don't disturb her. She needs rest. Go on +down-town and come and see me to-morrow--or if you want to go back +I will go with you. I want to say to Mrs. Sohlberg what I have +said to you. But remember what I've told you." + +"Nau, thank you," replied Sohlberg, feebly. "I will go down-town. +Good night." And he hurried away. + +"I'm sorry," said Cowperwood to himself, defensively. "It is too +bad, but it was the only way." + + + + +Chapter XXI + + + +A Matter of Tunnels + +The question of Sohlberg adjusted thus simply, if brutally, +Cowperwood turned his attention to Mrs. Sohlberg. But there was +nothing much to be done. He explained that he had now completely +subdued Aileen and Sohlberg, that the latter would make no more +trouble, that he was going to pension him, that Aileen would remain +permanently quiescent. He expressed the greatest solicitude for +her, but Rita was now sickened of this tangle. She had loved him, +as she thought, but through the rage of Aileen she saw him in a +different light, and she wanted to get away. His money, plentiful +as it was, did not mean as much to her as it might have meant to +some women; it simply spelled luxuries, without which she could +exist if she must. His charm for her had, perhaps, consisted +mostly in the atmosphere of flawless security, which seemed to +surround him--a glittering bubble of romance. That, by one fell +attack, was now burst. He was seen to be quite as other men, +subject to the same storms, the same danger of shipwreck. Only +he was a better sailor than most. She recuperated gradually; left +for home; left for Europe; details too long to be narrated. +Sohlberg, after much meditating and fuming, finally accepted the +offer of Cowperwood and returned to Denmark. Aileen, after a few +days of quarreling, in which he agreed to dispense with Antoinette +Nowak, returned home. + +Cowperwood was in no wise pleased by this rough denouement. Aileen +had not raised her own attractions in his estimation, and yet, +strange to relate, he was not unsympathetic with her. He had no +desire to desert her as yet, though for some time he had been +growing in the feeling that Rita would have been a much better +type of wife for him. But what he could not have, he could not +have. He turned his attention with renewed force to his business; +but it was with many a backward glance at those radiant hours when, +with Rita in his presence or enfolded by his arms, he had seen life +from a new and poetic angle. She was so charming, so naive--but +what could he do? + +For several years thereafter Cowperwood was busy following the +Chicago street-railway situation with increasing interest. He +knew it was useless to brood over Rita Sohlberg--she would not +return--and yet he could not help it; but he could work hard, and +that was something. His natural aptitude and affection for +street-railway work had long since been demonstrated, and it was +now making him restless. One might have said of him quite truly +that the tinkle of car-bells and the plop of plodding horses' feet +was in his blood. He surveyed these extending lines, with their +jingling cars, as he went about the city, with an almost hungry +eye. Chicago was growing fast, and these little horse-cars on +certain streets were crowded night and morning--fairly bulging +with people at the rush-hours. If he could only secure an +octopus-grip on one or all of them; if he could combine and control +them all! What a fortune! That, if nothing else, might salve him +for some of his woes--a tremendous fortune--nothing less. He +forever busied himself with various aspects of the scene quite as +a poet might have concerned himself with rocks and rills. To own +these street-railways! To own these street-railways! So rang the +song of his mind. + +Like the gas situation, the Chicago street-railway situation was +divided into three parts--three companies representing and +corresponding with the three different sides or divisions of the +city. The Chicago City Railway Company, occupying the South Side +and extending as far south as Thirty-ninth Street, had been organized +in 1859, and represented in itself a mine of wealth. Already it +controlled some seventy miles of track, and was annually being +added to on Indiana Avenue, on Wabash Avenue, on State Street, and +on Archer Avenue. It owned over one hundred and fifty cars of the +old-fashioned, straw-strewn, no-stove type, and over one thousand +horses; it employed one hundred and seventy conductors, one hundred +and sixty drivers, a hundred stablemen, and blacksmiths, harness-makers, +and repairers in interesting numbers. Its snow-plows were busy +on the street in winter, its sprinkling-cars in summer. Cowperwood +calculated its shares, bonds, rolling-stock, and other physical +properties as totaling in the vicinity of over two million dollars. +The trouble with this company was that its outstanding stock was +principally controlled by Norman Schryhart, who was now decidedly +inimical to Cowperwood, or anything he might wish to do, and by +Anson Merrill, who had never manifested any signs of friendship. +He did not see how he was to get control of this property. Its +shares were selling around two hundred and fifty dollars. + +The North Chicago City Railway was a corporation which had been +organized at the same time as the South Side company, but by a +different group of men. Its management was old, indifferent, and +incompetent, its equipment about the same. The Chicago West +Division Railway had originally been owned by the Chicago City or +South Side Railway, but was now a separate corporation. It was +not yet so profitable as the other divisions of the city, but all +sections of the city were growing. The horse-bell was heard +everywhere tinkling gaily. + +Standing on the outside of this scene, contemplating its promise, +Cowperwood much more than any one else connected financially with +the future of these railways at this time was impressed with their +enormous possibilities--their enormous future if Chicago continued +to grow, and was concerned with the various factors which might +further or impede their progress. + +Not long before he had discovered that one of the chief handicaps +to street-railway development, on the North and West Sides, lay +in the congestion of traffic at the bridges spanning the Chicago +River. Between the street ends that abutted on it and connected +the two sides of the city ran this amazing stream--dirty, odorous, +picturesque, compact of a heavy, delightful, constantly crowding +and moving boat traffic, which kept the various bridges momentarily +turning, and tied up the street traffic on either side of the +river until it seemed at times as though the tangle of teams and +boats would never any more be straightened out. It was lovely, +human, natural, Dickensesque--a fit subject for a Daumier, a Turner, +or a Whistler. The idlest of bridge-tenders judged for himself +when the boats and when the teams should be made to wait, and how +long, while in addition to the regular pedestrians a group of +idlers stood at gaze fascinated by the crowd of masts, the crush +of wagons, and the picturesque tugs in the foreground below. +Cowperwood, as he sat in his light runabout, annoyed by a delay, +or dashed swiftly forward to get over before a bridge turned, had +long since noted that the street-car service in the North and West +Sides was badly hampered. The unbroken South Side, unthreaded by +a river, had no such problem, and was growing rapidly. + +Because of this he was naturally interested to observe one day, +in the course of his peregrinations, that there existed in two +places under the Chicago River--in the first place at La Salle +Street, running north and south, and in the second at Washington +Street, running east and west--two now soggy and rat-infested +tunnels which were never used by anybody--dark, dank, dripping +affairs only vaguely lighted with oil-lamp, and oozing with water. +Upon investigation he learned that they had been built years +before to accommodate this same tide of wagon traffic, which now +congested at the bridges, and which even then had been rapidly +rising. Being forced to pay a toll in time to which a slight toll +in cash, exacted for the privilege of using a tunnel, had seemed +to the investors and public infinitely to be preferred, this traffic +had been offered this opportunity of avoiding the delay. However, +like many another handsome commercial scheme on paper or bubbling +in the human brain, the plan did not work exactly. These tunnels +might have proved profitable if they had been properly built with +long, low-per-cent. grades, wide roadways, and a sufficiency of +light and air; but, as a matter of fact, they had not been judiciously +adapted to public convenience. Norman Schryhart's father had been +an investor in these tunnels, and Anson Merrill. When they had +proved unprofitable, after a long period of pointless manipulation +--cost, one million dollars--they had been sold to the city for +exactly that sum each, it being poetically deemed that a growing +city could better afford to lose so disturbing an amount than any +of its humble, ambitious, and respectable citizens. That was a +little affair by which members of council had profited years before; +but that also is another story. + +After discovering these tunnels Cowperwood walked through them +several times--for though they were now boarded up, there was still +an uninterrupted footpath--and wondered why they could not be +utilized. It seemed to him that if the street-car traffic were +heavy enough, profitable enough, and these tunnels, for a reasonable +sum, could be made into a lower grade, one of the problems which +now hampered the growth of the North and West Sides would be +obviated. But how? He did not own the tunnels. He did not own +the street-railways. The cost of leasing and rebuilding the tunnels +would be enormous. Helpers and horses and extra drivers on any +grade, however slight, would have to be used, and that meant an +extra expense. With street-car horses as the only means of traction, +and with the long, expensive grades, he was not so sure that this +venture would be a profitable one. + +However, in the fall of 1880, or a little earlier (when he was +still very much entangled with the preliminary sex affairs that +led eventually to Rita Sohlberg), he became aware of a new system +of traction relating to street-cars which, together with the arrival +of the arc-light, the telephone, and other inventions, seemed +destined to change the character of city life entirely. + +Recently in San Francisco, where the presence of hills made the +movement of crowded street-railway cars exceedingly difficult, a +new type of traction had been introduced--that of the cable, which +was nothing more than a traveling rope of wire running over guttered +wheels in a conduit, and driven by immense engines, conveniently +located in adjacent stations or "power-houses." The cars carried +a readily manipulated "grip-lever," or steel hand, which reached +down through a slot into a conduit and "gripped" the moving cable. +This invention solved the problem of hauling heavily laden +street-cars up and down steep grades. About the same time he also +heard, in a roundabout way, that the Chicago City Railway, of +which Schryhart and Merrill were the principal owners, was about +to introduce this mode of traction on its lines--to cable State +Street, and attach the cars of other lines running farther out +into unprofitable districts as "trailers." At once the solution +of the North and West Side problems flashed upon him--cables. + +Outside of the bridge crush and the tunnels above mentioned, there +was one other special condition which had been for some time past +attracting Cowperwood's attention. This was the waning energy of +the North Chicago City Railway Company--the lack of foresight on +the part of its directors which prevented them from perceiving the +proper solution of their difficulties. The road was in a rather +unsatisfactory state financially--really open to a coup of some +sort. In the beginning it had been considered unprofitable, so +thinly populated was the territory they served, and so short the +distance from the business heart. Later, however, as the territory +filled up, they did better; only then the long waits at the bridges +occurred. The management, feeling that the lines were likely to +be poorly patronized, had put down poor, little, light-weight +rails, and run slimpsy cars which were as cold as ice in winter +and as hot as stove-ovens in summer. No attempt had been made to +extend the down-town terminus of the several lines into the business +center--they stopped just over the river which bordered it at the +north. (On the South Side Mr. Schryhart had done much better for +his patrons. He had already installed a loop for his cable about +Merrill's store.) As on the West Side, straw was strewn in the +bottom of all the cars in winter to keep the feet of the passengers +warm, and but few open cars were used in summer. The directors +were averse to introducing them because of the expense. So they +had gone on and on, adding lines only where they were sure they +would make a good profit from the start, putting down the same +style of cheap rail that had been used in the beginning, and +employing the same antique type of car which rattled and trembled +as it ran, until the patrons were enraged to the point of anarchy. +Only recently, because of various suits and complaints inaugurated, +the company had been greatly annoyed, but they scarcely knew what +to do, how to meet the onslaught. Though there was here and there +a man of sense--such as Terrence Mulgannon, the general superintendent; +Edwin Kaffrath, a director; William Johnson, the constructing engineer +of the company--yet such other men as Onias C. Skinner, the president, +and Walter Parker, the vice-president, were reactionaries of an +elderly character, conservative, meditative, stingy, and, worst of +all, fearful or without courage for great adventure. It is a sad +commentary that age almost invariably takes away the incentive to +new achievement and makes "Let well enough alone" the most appealing +motto. + +Mindful of this, Cowperwood, with a now splendid scheme in his +mind, one day invited John J. McKenty over to his house to dinner +on a social pretext. When the latter, accompanied by his wife, +had arrived, and Aileen had smiled on them both sweetly, and was +doing her best to be nice to Mrs. McKenty, Cowperwood remarked: + +"McKenty, do you know anything about these two tunnels that the +city owns under the river at Washington and La Salle streets?" + +"I know that the city took them over when it didn't need them, and +that they're no good for anything. That was before my time, though," +explained McKenty, cautiously. "I think the city paid a million +for them. Why?" + +"Oh, nothing much," replied Cowperwood, evading the matter for the +present. "I was wondering whether they were in such condition +that they couldn't be used for anything. I see occasional references +in the papers to their uselessness." + +"They're in pretty bad shape, I'm afraid," replied McKenty. "I +haven't been through either of them in years and years. The idea +was originally to let the wagons go through them and break up the +crowding at the bridges. But it didn't work. They made the grade +too steep and the tolls too high, and so the drivers preferred to +wait for the bridges. They were pretty hard on horses. I can +testify to that myself. I've driven a wagon-load through them +more than once. The city should never have taken them over at all +by rights. It was a deal. I don't know who all was in it. Carmody +was mayor then, and Aldrich was in charge of public works." + +He relapsed into silence, and Cowperwood allowed the matter of the +tunnels to rest until after dinner when they had adjourned to the +library. There he placed a friendly hand on McKenty's arm, an act +of familiarity which the politician rather liked. + +"You felt pretty well satisfied with the way that gas business +came out last year, didn't you?" he inquired. + +"I did," replied McKenty, warmly. "Never more so. I told you +that at the time." The Irishman liked Cowperwood, and was grateful +for the swift manner in which he had been made richer by the sum +of several hundred thousand dollars. + +"Well, now, McKenty," continued Cowperwood, abruptly, and with a +seeming lack of connection, "has it ever occurred to you that +things are shaping up for a big change in the street-railway +situation here? I can see it coming. There's going to be a new +motor power introduced on the South Side within a year or two. +You've heard of it?" + +"I read something of it," replied McKenty, surprised and a little +questioning. He took a cigar and prepared to listen. Cowperwood, +never smoking, drew up a chair. + +"Well, I'll tell you what that means," he explained. "It means +that eventually every mile of street-railway track in this city--to +say nothing of all the additional miles that will be built before +this change takes place--will have to be done over on an entirely +new basis. I mean this cable-conduit system. These old companies +that are hobbling along now with an old equipment will have to +make the change. They'll have to spend millions and millions +before they can bring their equipment up to date. If you've paid +any attention to the matter you must have seen what a condition +these North and West Side lines are in." + +"It's pretty bad; I know that," commented McKenty. + +"Just so," replied Cowperwood, emphatically. "Well, now, if I +know anything about these old managements from studying them, +they're going to have a hard time bringing themselves to do this. +Two to three million are two to three million, and it isn't going +to be an easy matter for them to raise the money--not as easy, +perhaps, as it would be for some of the rest of us, supposing we +wanted to go into the street-railway business." + +"Yes, supposing," replied McKenty, jovially. "But how are you to +get in it? There's no stock for sale that I know of." + +"Just the same," said Cowperwood, "we can if we want to, and I'll +show you how. But at present there's just one thing in particular +I'd like you to do for me. I want to know if there is any way +that we can get control of either of those two old tunnels that I +was talking to you about a little while ago. I'd like both if I +might. Do you suppose that is possible?" + +"Why, yes," replied McKenty, wondering; "but what have they got +to do with it? They're not worth anything. Some of the boys were +talking about filling them in some time ago--blowing them up. The +police think crooks hide in them." + +"Just the same, don't let any one touch them--don't lease them or +anything," replied Cowperwood, forcefully. "I'll tell you frankly +what I want to do. I want to get control, just as soon as possible, +of all the street-railway lines I can on the North and West +Sides--new or old franchises. Then you'll see where the tunnels +come in." + +He paused to see whether McKenty caught the point of all he meant, +but the latter failed. + +"You don't want much, do you?" he said, cheerfully. "But I don't +see how you can use the tunnels. However, that's no reason why I +shouldn't take care of them for you, if you think that's important." + +"It's this way," said Cowperwood, thoughtfully. "I'll make you a +preferred partner in all the ventures that I control if you do as +I suggest. The street-railways, as they stand now, will have to +be taken up lock, stock, and barrel, and thrown into the scrap +heap within eight or nine years at the latest. You see what the +South Side company is beginning to do now. When it comes to the +West and North Side companies they won't find it so easy. They +aren't earning as much as the South Side, and besides they have +those bridges to cross. That means a severe inconvenience to a +cable line. In the first place, the bridges will have to be rebuilt +to stand the extra weight and strain. Now the question arises at +once--at whose expense? The city's?" + +"That depends on who's asking for it," replied Mr. McKenty, amiably. + +"Quite so," assented Cowperwood. "In the next place, this river +traffic is becoming impossible from the point of view of a decent +street-car service. There are waits now of from eight to fifteen +minutes while these tows and vessels get through. Chicago has +five hundred thousand populaion to-day. How much will it have in +1890? In 1900? How will it be when it has eight hundred thousand +or a million?" + +"You're quite right," interpolated McKenty. "It will be pretty +bad." + +"Exactly. But what is worse, the cable lines will carry trailers, +or single cars, from feeder lines. There won't be single cars +waiting at these draws--there will be trains,crowded trains. It +won't be advisable to delay a cable-train from eight to fifteen +minutes while boats are making their way through a draw. The +public won't stand for that very long, will it, do you think?" + +"Not without making a row, probably," replied McKenty. + +"Well, that means what, then?" asked Cowperwood. "Is the traffic +going to get any lighter? Is the river going to dry up?" + +Mr. McKenty stared. Suddenly his face lighted. "Oh, I see," he +said, shrewdly. "It's those tunnels you're thinking about. Are +they in any shape to be used?" + +"They can be made over cheaper than new ones can be built." + +"True for you," replied McKenty, "and if they're in any sort of +repair they'd be just what you'd want." He was emphatic, almost +triumphant. "They belong to the city. They cost pretty near a +million apiece, those things." + +"I know it," said Cowperwood. "Now, do you see what I'm driving +at?" + +"Do I see!" smiled McKenty. "That's a real idea you have, Cowperwood. +I take off my hat to you. Say what you want." + +"Well, then, in the first place," replied Cowperwood, genially, +"it is agreed that the city won't part with those two tunnels under +any circumstances until we can see what can be done about this +other matter?" + +"It will not." + +"In the next place, it is understood, is it, that you won't make +it any easier than you can possibly help for the North and West +Side companies to get ordinances extending their lines, or anything +else, from now on? I shall want to introduce some franchises for +feeders and outlying lines myself." + +"Bring in your ordinances," replied McKenty, "and I'll do whatever +you say. I've worked with you before. I know that you keep your +word." + +"Thanks," said Cowperwood, warmly. "I know the value of keeping +it. In the mean while I'll go ahead and see what can be done about +the other matter. I don't know just how many men I will need to +let in on this, or just what form the organization will take. But +you may depend upon it that your interests will be properly taken +care of, and that whatever is done will be done with your full +knowledge and consent." + +"All very good," answered McKenty, thinking of the new field of +activity before them. A combination between himself and Cowperwood +in a matter like this must prove very beneficial to both. And he +was satisfied, because of their previous relations, that his own +interests would not be neglected. + +"Shall we go and see if we can find the ladies?" asked Cowperwood, +jauntily, laying hold of the politician's arm. + +"To be sure," assented McKenty, gaily. "It's a fine house you +have here--beautiful. And your wife is as pretty a woman as I +ever saw, if you'll pardon the familiarity." + +"I have always thought she was rather attractive myself," replied +Cowperwood, innocently. + + + + +Chapter XXII + + + +Street-railways at Last + +Among the directors of the North Chicago City company there was +one man, Edwin L. Kaffrath, who was young and of a forward-looking +temperament. His father, a former heavy stockholder of this +company, had recently died and left all his holdings and practically +his directorship to his only son. Young Kaffrath was by no means +a practical street-railway man, though he fancied he could do very +well at it if given a chance. He was the holder of nearly eight +hundred of the five thousand shares of stock; but the rest of it +was so divided that he could only exercise a minor influence. +Nevertheless, from the day of his entrance into the company--which +was months before Cowperwood began seriously to think over the +situation--he had been strong for improvements--extensions, more +franchises, better cars, better horses, stoves in the cars in +winter, and the like, all of which suggestions sounded to his +fellow-directors like mere manifestations of the reckless impetuosity +of youth, and were almost uniformly opposed. + +"What's the matter with them cars?" asked Albert Thorsen, one of +the elder directors, at one of the meetings at which Kaffrath was +present and offering his usual protest. "I don't see anything the +matter with 'em. I ride in em." + +Thorsen was a heavy, dusty, tobacco-bestrewn individual of sixty-six, +who was a little dull but genial. He was in the paint business, +and always wore a very light steel-gray suit much crinkled in the +seat and arms. + +"Perhaps that's what's the matter with them, Albert," chirped up +Solon Kaempfaert, one of his cronies on the board. + +The sally drew a laugh. + +"Oh, I don't know. I see the rest of you on board often enough." + +"Why, I tell you what's the matter with them," replied Kaffrath. +"They're dirty, and they're flimsy, and the windows rattle so you +can't hear yourself think. The track is no good, and the filthy +straw we keep in them in winter is enough to make a person sick. +We don't keep the track in good repair. I don't wonder people +complain. I'd complain myself." + +"Oh, I don't think things are as bad as all that," put in Onias +C. Skinner, the president, who had a face which with its very +short side-whiskers was as bland as a Chinese god. He was sixty-eight +years of age. "They're not the best cars in the world, but they're +good cars. They need painting and varnishing pretty badly, some +of them, but outside of that there's many a good year's wear in +them yet. I'd be very glad if we could put in new rolling-stock, +but the item of expense will be considerable. It's these extensions +that we have to keep building and the long hauls for five cents +which eat up the profits." The so-called "long hauls" were only +two or three miles at the outside, but they seemed long to Mr. +Skinner. + +"Well, look at the South Side," persisted Kaffrath. "I don't know +what you people are thinking of. Here's a cable system introduced +in Philadelphia. There's another in San Francisco. Some one has +invented a car, as I understand it, that's going to run by +electricity, and here we are running cars--barns, I call them--with +straw in them. Good Lord, I should think it was about time that +some of us took a tumble to ourselves!" + +"Oh, I don't know," commented Mr. Skinner. "It seems to me we +have done pretty well by the North Side. We have done a good +deal." + +Directors Solon Kaempfaert, Albert Thorsen, Isaac White, Anthony +Ewer, Arnold C. Benjamin, and Otto Matjes, being solemn gentlemen +all, merely sat and stared. + +The vigorous Kaffrath was not to be so easily repressed, however. +He repeated his complaints on other occasions. The fact that +there was also considerable complaint in the newspapers from time +to time in regard to this same North Side service pleased him in +a way. Perhaps this would be the proverbial fire under the terrapin +which would cause it to move along. + +By this time, owing to Cowperwood's understanding with McKenty, +all possibility of the North Side company's securing additional +franchises for unoccupied streets, or even the use of the La Salle +Street tunnel, had ended. Kaffrath did not know this. Neither +did the directors or officers of the company, but it was true. +In addition, McKenty, through the aldermen, who were at his beck +and call on the North Side, was beginning to stir up additional +murmurs and complaints in order to discredit the present management. +There was a great to-do in council over a motion on the part of +somebody to compel the North Side company to throw out its old +cars and lay better and heavier tracks. Curiously, this did not +apply so much to the West and South Sides, which were in the same +condition. The rank and file of the city, ignorant of the tricks +which were constantly being employed in politics to effect one end +or another, were greatly cheered by this so-called "public uprising." +They little knew the pawns they were in the game, or how little +sincerity constituted the primal impulse. + +Quite by accident, apparently, one day Addison, thinking of the +different men in the North Side company who might be of service +to Cowperwood, and having finally picked young Kaffrath as the +ideal agent, introduced himself to the latter at the Union League. + +"That's a pretty heavy load of expense that's staring you North +and West Side street-railway people in the face," he took occasion +to observe. + +"How's that?" asked Kaffrath, curiously, anxious to hear anything +which concerned the development of the business. + +"Well, unless I'm greatly mistaken, you, all of you, are going to +be put to the expense of doing over your lines completely in a +very little while--so I hear--introducing this new motor or cable +system that they are getting on the South Side." Addison wanted +to convey the impression that the city council or public sentiment +or something was going to force the North Chicago company to indulge +in this great and expensive series of improvements. + +Kaffrath pricked up his ears. What was the city Council going to +do? He wanted to know all about it. They discussed the whole +situation--the nature of the cable-conduits, the cost of the +power-houses, the need of new rails, and the necessity of heavier +bridges, or some other means of getting over or under the river. +Addison took very good care to point out that the Chicago City or +South Side Railway was in a much more fortunate position than +either of the other two by reason of its freedom from the +river-crossing problem. Then he again commiserated the North Side +company on its rather difficult position. "Your company will have +a very great deal to do, I fancy," he reiterated. + +Kaffrath was duly impressed and appropriately depressed, for his +eight hundred shares would be depressed in value by the necessity +of heavy expenditures for tunnels and other improvements. +Nevertheless, there was some consolation in the thought that such +betterment, as Addison now described, would in the long run make +the lines more profitable. But in the mean time there might be +rough sailing. The old directors ought to act soon now, he thought. +With the South Side company being done over, they would have to +follow suit. But would they? How could he get them to see that, +even though it were necessary to mortgage the lines for years to +come, it would pay in the long run? He was sick of old, conservative, +cautious methods. + +After the lapse of a few weeks Addison, still acting for Cowperwood, +had a second and private conference with Kaffrath. He said, after +exacting a promise of secrecy for the present, that since their +previous conversation he had become aware of new developments. +In the interval he had been visited by several men of long connection +with street-railways in other localities. They had been visiting +various cities, looking for a convenient outlet for their capital, +and had finally picked on Chicago. They had looked over the various +lines here, and had decided that the North Chicago City Railway +was as good a field as any. He then elaborated with exceeding +care the idea which Cowperwood had outlined to him. Kaffrath, +dubious at first, was finally won over. He had too long chafed +under the dusty, poky attitude of the old regime. He did not +know who these new men were, but this scheme was in line with +his own ideas. It would require, as Addison pointed out, the +expenditure of several millions of dollars, and he did not see +how the money could be raised without outside assistance, unless +the lines were heavily mortgaged. If these new men were willing +to pay a high rate for fifty-one per cent. of this stock for +ninety-nine years and would guarantee a satisfactory rate of +interest on all the stock as it stood, besides inaugurating a +forward policy, why not let them? It would be just as good as +mortgaging the soul out of the old property, and the management +was of no value, anyhow. Kaffrath could not see how fortunes +were to be made for these new investors out of subsidiary +construction and equipment companies, in which Cowperwood would +be interested, how by issuing watered stock on the old and new +lines the latter need scarcely lay down a dollar once he had the +necessary opening capital (the "talking capital," as he was fond +of calling it) guaranteed. Cowperwood and Addison had by now +agreed, if this went through, to organize the Chicago Trust Company +with millions back of it to manipulate all their deals. Kaffrath +only saw a better return on his stock, possibly a chance to get +in on the "ground plan," as a new phrase expressed it, of the new +company. + +"That's what I've been telling these fellows for the past three +years," he finally exclaimed to Addison, flattered by the latter's +personal attention and awed by his great influence; "but they never +have been willing to listen to me. The way this North Side system +has been managed is a crime. Why, a child could do better than +we have done. They've saved on track and rolling-stock, and lost +on population. People are what we want up there, and there is +only one way that I know of to get them, and that is to give them +decent car service. I'll tell you frankly we've never done it." + +Not long after this Cowperwood had a short talk with Kaffrath, in +which he promised the latter not only six hundred dollars a share +for all the stock he possessed or would part with on lease, but a +bonus of new company stock for his influence. Kaffrath returned +to the North Side jubilant for himself and for his company. He +decided after due thought that a roundabout way would best serve +Cowperwood's ends, a line of subtle suggestion from some seemingly +disinterested party. Consequently he caused William Johnson, the +directing engineer, to approach Albert Thorsen, one of the most +vulnerable of the directors, declaring he had heard privately that +Isaac White, Arnold C. Benjamin, and Otto Matjes, three other +directors and the heaviest owners, had been offered a very remarkable +price for their stock, and that they were going to sell, leaving +the others out in the cold. + +Thorsen was beside himself with grief. "When did you hear that?" +he asked. + +Johnson told him, but for the time being kept the source of his +information secret. Thorsen at once hurried to his friend, Solon +Kaempfaert, who in turn went to Kaffrath for information. + +"I have heard something to that effect," was Kaffrath's only +comment, "but really I do not know." + +Thereupon Thorsen and Kaempfaert imagined that Kaffrath was in the +conspiracy to sell out and leave them with no particularly valuable +pickings. It was very sad. + +Meanwhile, Cowperwood, on the advice of Kaffrath, was approaching +Isaac White, Arnold C. Benjamin, and Otto Matjes direct--talking +with them as if they were the only three he desired to deal with. +A little later Thorsen and Kaempfaert were visited in the same +spirit, and agreed in secret fear to sell out, or rather lease at +the very advantageous terms Cowperwood offered, providing he could +get the others to do likewise. This gave the latter a strong +backing of sentiment on the board. Finally Isaac White stated at +one of the meetings that he had been approached with an interesting +proposition, which he then and there outlined. He was not sure +what to think, he said, but the board might like to consider it. +At once Thorsen and Kaempfaert were convinced that all Johnson had +suggested was true. It was decided to have Cowperwood come and +explain to the full board just what his plan was, and this he did +in a long, bland, smiling talk. It was made plain that the road +would have to be put in shape in the near future, and that this +proposed plan relieved all of them of work, worry, and care. +Moreover, they were guaranteed more interest at once than they had +expected to earn in the next twenty or thirty years. Thereupon +it was agreed that Cowperwood and his plan should be given a trial. +Seeing that if he did not succeed in paying the proposed interest +promptly the property once more became theirs, so they thought, +and that he assumed all obligations--taxes, water rents, old claims, +a few pensions--it appeared in the light of a rather idyllic scheme. + +"Well, boys, I think this is a pretty good day's work myself," +observed Anthony Ewer, laying a friendly hand on the shoulder of +Mr. Albert Thorsen. "I'm sure we can all unite in wishing Mr. +Cowperwood luck with his adventure." Mr. Ewer's seven hundred and +fifteen shares, worth seventy-one thousand five hundred dollars, +having risen to a valuation of four hundred and twenty-nine thousand +dollars, he was naturally jubilant. + +"You're right," replied Thorsen, who was parting with four hundred +and eighty shares out of a total of seven hundred and ninety, and +seeing them all bounce in value from two hundred to six hundred +dollars. "He's an interesting man. I hope he succeeds." + +Cowperwood, waking the next morning in Aileen's room--he had been +out late the night before with McKenty, Addison, Videra, and +others--turned and, patting her neck where she was dozing, said: +"Well, pet, yesterday afternoon I wound up that North Chicago +Street Railway deal. I'm president of the new North Side company +just as soon as I get my board of directors organized. We're going +to be of some real consequence in this village, after all, in a +year or two." + +He was hoping that this fact, among other things, would end in +mollifying Aileen toward him. She had been so gloomy, remote, +weary these many days--ever since the terrific assault on Rita. + +"Yes?" she replied, with a half-hearted smile, rubbing her waking +eyes. She was clad in a foamy nightgown of white and pink. "That's +nice, isn't it?" + +Cowperwood brought himself up on one elbow and looked at her, +smoothing her round, bare arms, which he always admired. The +luminous richness of her hair had never lost its charm completely. + +"That means that I can do the same thing with the Chicago West +Division Company in a year or so," he went on. "But there's going +to be a lot of talk about this, I'm afraid, and I don't want that +just now. It will work out all right. I can see Schryhart and +Merrill and some of these other people taking notice pretty soon. +They've missed out on two of the biggest things Chicago ever had +--gas and railways." + +"Oh yes, Frank, I'm glad for you," commented Aileen, rather drearily, +who, in spite of her sorrow over his defection, was still glad +that he was going on and forward. "You'll always do all right." + +"I wish you wouldn't feel so badly, Aileen," he said, with a kind +of affectional protest. "Aren't you going to try and be happy +with me? This is as much for you as for me. You will be able to +pay up old scores even better than I will." + +He smiled winningly. + +"Yes," she replied, reproachfully but tenderly at that, a little +sorrowfully, "a lot of good money does me. It was your love I +wanted." + +"But you have that," he insisted. "I've told you that over and +over. I never ceased to care for you really. You know I didn't." + +"Yes, I know," she replied, even as he gathered her close in his +arms. "I know how you care." But that did not prevent her from +responding to him warmly, for back of all her fuming protest was +heartache, the wish to have his love intact, to restore that +pristine affection which she had once assumed would endure forever. + + + + +Chapter XXIII + + + +The Power of the Press + +The morning papers, in spite of the efforts of Cowperwood and his +friends to keep this transfer secret, shortly thereafter were full +of rumors of a change in "North Chicago." Frank Algernon Cowperwood, +hitherto unmentioned in connection with Chicago street-railways, +was pointed to as the probable successor to Onias C. Skinner, and +Edwin L. Kaffrath, one of the old directors, as future vice-president. +The men back of the deal were referred to as "in all likelihood +Eastern capitalists." Cowperwood, as he sat in Aileen's room +examining the various morning papers, saw that before the day was +over he would be sought out for an expression of opinion and further +details. He proposed to ask the newspaper men to wait a few days +until he could talk to the publishers of the papers themselves--win +their confidence--and then announce a general policy; it would be +something that would please the city, and the residents of the +North Side in particular. At the same time he did not care to +promise anything which he could not easily and profitably perform. +He wanted fame and reputation, but he wanted money even more; he +intended to get both. + +To one who had been working thus long in the minor realms of +finance, as Cowperwood considered that he had so far been doing, +this sudden upward step into the more conspicuous regions of high +finance and control was an all-inspiring thing. So long had he +been stirring about in a lesser region, paving the way by hours +and hours of private thought and conference and scheming, that now +when he actually had achieved his end he could scarcely believe +for the time being that it was true. Chicago was such a splendid +city. It was growing so fast. Its opportunities were so wonderful. +These men who had thus foolishly parted with an indefinite lease +of their holdings had not really considered what they were doing. +This matter of Chicago street-railways, once he had them well in +hand, could be made to yield such splendid profits! He could +incorporate and overcapitalize. Many subsidiary lines, which +McKenty would secure for him for a song, would be worth millions +in the future, and they should be his entirely; he would not be +indebted to the directors of the old North Chicago company for +any interest on those. By degrees, year by year, as the city grew, +the lines which were still controlled by this old company, but +were practically his, would become a mere item, a central core, +in the so very much larger system of new lines which he would build +up about it. Then the West Side, and even the South Side sections +--but why dream? He might readily become the sole master of +street-railway traffic in Chicago! He might readily become the +most princely financial figure in the city--and one of the few +great financial magnates of the nation. + +In any public enterprise of any kind, as he knew, where the suffrages +of the people or the privileges in their possessions are desired, +the newspapers must always be considered. As Cowperwood even now +was casting hungry eyes in the direction of the two tunnels--one +to be held in view of an eventual assumption of the Chicago West +Division Company, the other to be given to the North Chicago Street +Railway, which he had now organized, it was necessary to make +friends with the various publishers. How to go about it? + +Recently, because of the influx of a heavy native and foreign-born +population (thousands and thousands of men of all sorts and +conditions looking for the work which the growth of the city seemed +to promise), and because of the dissemination of stirring ideas +through radical individuals of foreign groups concerning anarchism, +socialism, communism, and the like, the civic idea in Chicago had +become most acute. This very May, in which Cowperwood had been +going about attempting to adjust matters in his favor, there had +been a tremendous national flare-up, when in a great public place +on the West Side known as the Haymarket, at one of a number of +labor meetings, dubbed anarchistic because of the principles of +some of the speakers, a bomb had been hurled by some excited +fanatic, which had exploded and maimed or killed a number of +policemen, injuring slightly several others. This had brought to +the fore, once and for all, as by a flash of lightning, the whole +problem of mass against class, and had given it such an airing as +in view of the cheerful, optimistic, almost inconsequential American +mind had not previously been possible. It changed, quite as an +eruption might, the whole face of the commercial landscape. Man +thought thereafter somewhat more accurately of national and civic +things. What was anarchism? What socialism? What rights had the +rank and file, anyhow, in economic and governmental development? +Such were interesting questions, and following the bomb--which +acted as a great stone cast in the water--these ripple-rings of +thought were still widening and emanating until they took in such +supposedly remote and impregnable quarters as editorial offices, +banks and financial institutions generally, and the haunts of +political dignitaries and their jobs. + +In the face of this, however, Cowperwood was not disturbed. He +did not believe in either the strength of the masses or their +ultimate rights, though he sympathized with the condition of +individuals, and did believe that men like himself were sent into +the world to better perfect its mechanism and habitable order. +Often now, in these preliminary days, he looked at the large +companies of men with their horses gathered in and about the several +carbarns of the company, and wondered at their state. So many of +them were so dull. They were rather like animals, patient, +inartistic, hopeless. He thought of their shabby homes, their +long hours, their poor pay, and then concluded that if anything +at all could be done for them it would be pay them decent living +wages, which he proposed to do--nothing more. They could not be +expected to understand his dreams or his visions, or to share in +the magnificence and social dominance which he craved. He finally +decided that it would be as well for him to personally visit the +various newspaper publishers and talk the situation over with them. +Addison, when consulted as to this project, was somewhat dubious. +He had small faith in the newspapers. + +He had seen them play petty politics, follow up enmities and +personal grudges, and even sell out, in certain cases, for +pathetically small rewards. + +"I tell you how it is, Frank," remarked Addison, on one occasion. +"You will have to do all this business on cotton heels, practically. +You know that old gas crowd are still down on you, in spite of +the fact that you are one of their largest stockholders. Schryhart +isn't at all friendly, and he practically owns the Chronicle. +Ricketts will just about say what he wants him to say. Hyssop, +of the Mail and the Transcript, is an independent man, but he's a +Presbyterian and a cold, self-righteous moralist. Braxton's paper, +the Globe, practically belongs to Merrill, but Braxton's a nice +fellow, at that. Old General MacDonald, of the Inquirer, is old +General MacDonald. It's all according to how he feels when he +gets up in the morning. If he should chance to like your looks +he might support you forever and forever until you crossed his +conscience in some way. He's a fine old walrus. I like him. +Neither Schryhart nor Merrill nor any one else can get anything +out of him unless he wants to give it. He may not live so many +years, however, and I don't trust that son of his. Haguenin, of +the Press, is all right and friendly to you, as I understand. +Other things being equal, I think he'd naturally support you in +anything he thought was fair and reasonable. Well, there you have +them. Get them all on your side if you can. Don't ask for the +LaSalle Street tunnel right away. Let it come as an afterthought +--a great public need. The main thing will be to avoid having the +other companies stirring up a real fight against you. Depend on +it, Schryhart will be thinking pretty hard about this whole business +from now on. As for Merrill--well, if you can show him where he +can get something out of it for his store, I guess he'll be for +you. + +It is one of the splendid yet sinister fascinations of life that +there is no tracing to their ultimate sources all the winds of +influence that play upon a given barque--all the breaths of chance +that fill or desert our bellied or our sagging sails. We plan and +plan, but who by taking thought can add a cubit to his stature? +Who can overcome or even assist the Providence that shapes our +ends, rough hew them as we may. Cowperwood was now entering upon +a great public career, and the various editors and public personalities +of the city were watching him with interest. Augustus M. Haguenin, +a free agent with his organ, the Press, and yet not free, either, +because he was harnessed to the necessity of making his paper pay, +was most interested. Lacking the commanding magnetism of a man +like MacDonald, he was nevertheless an honest man, well-intentioned, +thoughtful, careful. Haguenin, ever since the outcome of Cowperwood's +gas transaction, had been intensely interested in the latter's +career. It seemed to him that Cowperwood was probably destined +to become a significant figure. Raw, glittering force, however, +compounded of the cruel Machiavellianism of nature, if it be but +Machiavellian, seems to exercise a profound attraction for the +conventionally rooted. Your cautious citizen of average means, +looking out through the eye of his dull world of seeming fact, is +often the first to forgive or condone the grim butcheries of theory +by which the strong rise. Haguenin, observing Cowperwood, conceived +of him as a man perhaps as much sinned against as sinning, a man +who would be faithful to friends, one who could be relied upon in +hours of great stress. As it happened, the Haguenins were neighbors +of the Cowperwoods, and since those days when the latter had +attempted unsuccessfully to enter Chicago society this family had +been as acceptable as any of those who had remained friendly. + +And so, when Cowperwood arrived one day at the office of the Press +in a blowing snow-storm--it was just before the Christmas holidays +--Haguenin was glad to see him. "It's certainly real winter weather +we're having now, isn't it?" he observed, cheerfully. "How goes +the North Chicago Street Railway business?" For months he, with +the other publishers, had been aware that the whole North Side +was to be made over by fine cable-tracks, power-houses, and handsome +cars; and there already was talk that some better arrangement was +to be made to bring the passengers into the down-town section. + +"Mr. Haguenin," said Cowperwood, smilingly--he was arrayed in a +heavy fur coat, with a collar of beaver and driving-gauntlets of +dogskin--"we have reached the place in this street-railway problem +on the North Side where we are going to require the assistance of +the newspapers, or at least their friendly support. At present +our principal difficulty is that all our lines, when they come +down-town, stop at Lake Street--just this side of the bridges. +That means a long walk for everybody to all the streets south of +it, and, as you probably know, there has been considerable complaint. +Besides that, this river traffic is becoming more and more what I +may say it has been for years--an intolerable nuisance. We have +all suffered from it. No effort has ever been made to regulate +it, and because it is so heavy I doubt whether it ever can be +systematized in any satisfactory way. The best thing in the long +run would be to tunnel under the river; but that is such an +expensive proposition that, as things are now, we are in no position +to undertake it. The traffic on the North Side does not warrant +it. It really does not warrant the reconstruction of the three +bridges which we now use at State, Dearborn, and Clark; yet, if +we introduce the cable system, which we now propose, these bridges +will have to be done over. It seems to me, seeing that this is +an enterprise in which the public is as much interested almost as +we are, that it would only be fair if the city should help pay +for this reconstruction work. All the land adjacent to these lines, +and the property served by them, will be greatly enhanced in value. +The city's taxing power will rise tremendously. I have talked to +several financiers here in Chicago, and they agree with me; but, +as is usual in all such cases, I find that some of the politicians +are against me. Since I have taken charge of the North Chicago +company the attitude of one or two papers has not been any too +friendly." (In the Chronicle, controlled by Schryhart, there had +already been a number of references to the probability that now, +since Cowperwood and his friends were in charge, the sky-rocketing +tactics of the old Lake View, Hyde Park, and other gas organizations +would be repeated. Braxton's Globe, owned by Merrill, being +semi-neutral, had merely suggested that it hoped that no such +methods would be repeated here.) "Perhaps you may know," Cowperwood +continued, "that we have a very sweeping programme of improvement +in mind, if we can obtain proper public consideration and assistance." + +At this point he reached down in one of his pockets and drew forth +astutely drafted maps and blue-prints, especially prepared for +this occasion. They showed main cable lines on North Clark, La +Salle, and Wells streets. These lines coming down-town converged +at Illinois and La Salle streets on the North Side--and though +Cowperwood made no reference to it at the moment, they were indicated +on the map in red as running over or under the river at La Salle +Street, where was no bridge, and emerging therefrom, following a +loop along La Salle to Munroe, to Dearborn, to Randolph, and thence +into the tunnel again. Cowperwood allowed Haguenin to gather the +very interesting traffic significance of it all before he proceeded. + +"On the map, Mr. Haguenin, I have indicated a plan which, if we +can gain the consent of the city, will obviate any quarrel as to +the great expense of reconstructing the bridges, and will make use +of a piece of property which is absolutely without value to the +city at present, but which can be made into something of vast +convenience to the public. I am referring, as you see"--he laid +an indicative finger on the map in Mr. Haguenin's hands--"to the +old La Salle Street tunnel, which is now boarded up and absolutely +of no use to any one. It was built apparently under a misapprehension +as to the grade the average loaded wagon could negotiate. When +it was found to be unprofitable it was sold to the city and locked +up. If you have ever been through it you know what condition it +is in. My engineers tell me the walls are leaking, and that there +is great danger of a cave-in unless it is very speedily repaired. +I am also told that it will require about four hundred thousand +dollars to put it in suitable condition for use. My theory is +that if the North Chicago Street Railway is willing to go to this +expense for the sake of solving this bridge-crush problem, and +giving the residents of the North Side a sensible and uninterrupted +service into the business heart, the city ought to be willing to +make us a present of this tunnel for the time being, or at least +a long lease at a purely nominal rental." + +Cowperwood paused to see what Haguenin would say. + +The latter was looking at the map gravely, wondering whether it +was fair for Cowperwood to make this demand, wondering whether the +city should grant it to him without compensation, wondering whether +the bridge-traffic problem was as serious as he pointed out, +wondering, indeed, whether this whole move was not a clever ruse +to obtain something for nothing. + +"And what is this?" he asked, laying a finger on the aforementioned +loop. + +"That," replied Cowperwood, "is the only method we have been able +to figure out of serving the down-town business section and the +North Side, and of solving this bridge problem. If we obtain the +tunnel, as I hope we shall, all the cars of these North Side lines +will emerge here"--he pointed to La Salle and Randolph--" and swing +around--that is, they will if the city council give us the right +of way. I think, of course, there can be no reasonable objection +to that. There is no reason why the citizens of the North Side +shouldn't have as comfortable an access to the business heart as +those of the West or South Side." + +"None in the world," Mr. Haguenin was compelled to admit. "Are +you satisfied, however, that the council and the city should +sanction the gift of a loop of this kind without some form of +compensation?" + +"I see no reason why they shouldn't," replied Cowperwood, in a +somewhat injured tone. "There has never been any question of +compensation where other improvements have been suggested for the +city in the past. The South Side company has been allowed to turn +in a loop around State and Wabash. The Chicago City Passenger +Railway has a loop in Adams and Washington streets." + +"Quite so," said Mr. Haguenin, vaguely. "That is true. But this +tunnel, now--do you think that should fall in the same category +of public beneficences?" + +At the same time he could not help thinking, as he looked at the +proposed loop indicated on the map, that the new cable line, with +its string of trailers, would give down-town Chicago a truly +metropolitan air and would provide a splendid outlet for the North +Side. The streets in question were magnificent commercial +thoroughfares, crowded even at this date with structures five, +six, seven, and even eight stories high, and brimming with heavy +streams of eager life--young, fresh, optimistic. Because of the +narrow area into which the commercial life of the city tended to +congest itself, this property and these streets were immensely +valuable--among the most valuable in the whole city. Also he +observed that if this loop did come here its cars, on their return +trip along Dearborn Street, would pass by his very door--the +office of the Press--thereby enhancing the value of that property +of which he was the owner. + +"I certainly do, Mr. Haguenin," returned Cowperwood, emphatically, +in answer to his query. "Personally, I should think Chicago would +be glad to pay a bonus to get its street-railway service straightened +out, especially where a corporation comes forward with a liberal, +conservative programme such as this. It means millions in growth +of property values on the North Side. It means millions to the +business heart to have this loop system laid down just as I suggest." + +He put his finger firmly on the map which he had brought, and +Haguenin agreed with him that the plan was undoubtedly a sound +business proposition. "Personally, I should be the last to +complain," he added, "for the line passes my door. At the same +time this tunnel, as I understand it, cost in the neighborhood of +eight hundred thousand or a million dollars. It is a delicate +problem. I should like to know what the other editors think of +it, and how the city council itself would feel toward it." + +Cowperwood nodded. "Certainly, certainly," he said. "With pleasure. +I would not come here at all if I did not feel that I had a perfectly +legitimate proposition--one that the press of the city should unite +in supporting. Where a corporation such as ours is facing large +expenditures, which have to be financed by outside capital, it is +only natural that we should wish to allay useless, groundless +opposition in advance. I hope we may command your support." + +"I hope you may," smiled Mr. Haguenin. They parted the best of +friends. + +The other publishers, guardians of the city's privileges, were not +quite so genial as Haguenin in their approval of Cowperwood's +proposition. The use of a tunnel and several of the most important +down-town streets might readily be essential to the development +of Cowperwood's North Side schemes, but the gift of them was a +different matter. Already, as a matter of fact, the various +publishers and editors had been consulted by Schryhart, Merrill, +and others with a view to discovering how they felt as to this new +venture, and whether Cowperwood would be cheerfully indorsed or +not. Schryhart, smarting from the wounds he had received in the +gas war, viewed this new activity on Cowperwood's part with a +suspicious and envious eye. To him much more than to the others +it spelled a new and dangerous foe in the street-railway field, +although all the leading citizens of Chicago were interested. + +"I suppose now," he said one evening to the Hon. Walter Melville +Hyssop, editor and publisher of the Transcript and the Evening +Mail, whom he met at the Union League, "that this fellow Cowperwood +will attempt some disturbing coup in connection with street-railway +affairs. He is just the sort. I think, from an editorial point +of view, his political connections will bear watching." Already +there were rumors abroad that McKenty might have something to do +with the new company. + +Hyssop, a medium-sized, ornate, conservative person, was not so +sure. "We shall find out soon enough, no doubt, what propositions +Mr. Cowperwood has in hand," he remarked. "He is very energetic +and capable, as I understand it." + +Hyssop and Schryhart, as well as the latter and Merrill, had been +social friends for years and years. + +After his call on Mr. Haguenin, Cowperwood's naturally selective +and self-protective judgment led him next to the office of the +Inquirer, old General MacDonald's paper, where he found that because +of rhuematism and the severe, inclement weather of Chicago, the +old General had sailed only a few days before for Italy. His son, +an aggressive, mercantile type of youth of thirty-two, and a +managing editor by the name of Du Bois were acting in his stead. +In the son, Truman Leslie MacDonald, an intense, calm, and penetrating +young man, Cowperwood encountered some one who, like himself, saw +life only from the point of view of sharp, self-centered, personal +advantage. What was he, Truman Leslie MacDonald, to derive from +any given situation, and how was he to make the Inquirer an even +greater property than it had been under his father before him? He +did not propose to be overwhelmed by the old General's rather +flowery reputation. At the same time he meant to become imposingly +rich. An active member of a young and very smart set which had +been growing up on the North Side, he rode, drove, was instrumental +in organizing a new and exclusive country club, and despised the +rank and file as unsuited to the fine atmosphere to which he +aspired. Mr. Clifford Du Bois, the managing editor, was a cool +reprobate of forty, masquerading as a gentleman, and using the +Inquirer in subtle ways for furthering his personal ends, and that +under the old General's very nose. He was osseous, sandy-haired, +blue-eyed, with a keen, formidable nose and a solid chin. Clifford +Du Bois was always careful never to let his left hand know what +his right hand did. + +It was this sapient pair that received Cowperwood in the old +General's absence, first in Mr. Du Bois's room and then in that +of Mr. MacDonald. The latter had already heard much of Cowperwood's +doings. Men who had been connected with the old gas war--Jordan +Jules, for instance, president of the old North Chicago Gas Company, +and Hudson Baker, president of the old West Chicago Gas Company +--had denounced him long before as a bucaneer who had pirated them +out of very comfortable sinecures. Here he was now invading the +North Chicago street-railway field and coming with startling schemes +for the reorganization of the down-town business heart. Why shouldn't +the city have something in return; or, better yet, those who helped +to formulate the public opinion, so influential in the success of +Cowperwood's plans? Truman Leslie MacDonald, as has been said, did +not see life from his father's point of view at all. He had in +mind a sharp bargain, which he could drive with Cowperwood during +the old gentleman's absence. The General need never know. + +"I understand your point of view, Mr. Cowperwood," he commented, +loftily, "but where does the city come in? I see very clearly how +important this is to the people of the North Side, and even to the +merchants and real-estate owners in the down-town section; but +that simply means that it is ten times as important to you. +Undoubtedly, it will help the city, but the city is growing, anyhow, +and that will help you. I've said all along that these public +franchises were worth more than they used to be worth. Nobody +seems to see it very clearly as yet, but it's true just the same. +That tunnel is worth more now than the day it was built. Even if +the city can't use it, somebody can. + +He was meaning to indicate a rival car line. + +Cowperwood bristled internally. + +"That's all very well," he said, preserving his surface composure, +"but why make fish of one and flesh of another? The South Side +company has a loop for which it never paid a dollar. So has the +Chicago City Passenger Railway. The North Side company is planning +more extensive improvements than were ever undertaken by any single +company before. I hardly think it is fair to raise the question +of compensation and a franchise tax at this time, and in connection +with this one company only." + +"Um--well, that may be true of the other companies. The South +Side company had those streets long ago. They merely connected +them up. But this tunnel, now--that's a different matter, isn't +it? The city bought and paid for that, didn't it?" + +"Quite true--to help out men who saw that they couldn't make another +dollar out of it," said Cowperwood, acidly. "But it's of no use +to the city. It will cave in pretty soon if it isn't repaired. +Why, the consent of property-owners alone, along the line of this +loop, is going to aggregate a considerable sum. It seems to me +instead of hampering a great work of this kind the public ought +to do everything in its power to assist it. It means giving a new +metropolitan flavor to this down-town section. It is time Chicago +was getting out of its swaddling clothes." + +Mr. MacDonald, the younger, shook his head. He saw clearly enough +the significance of the points made, but he was jealous of Cowperwood +and of his success. This loop franchise and tunnel gift meant +millions for some one. Why shouldn't there be something in it for +him? He called in Mr. Du Bois and went over the proposition with +him. Quite without effort the latter sensed the drift of the +situation. + +"It's an excellent proposition," he said. "I don't see but that +the city should have something, though. Public sentiment is rather +against gifts to corporations just at present." + +Cowperwood caught the drift of what was in young MacDonald's mind. + +"Well, what would you suggest as a fair rate of compensation to +the city?" he asked, cautiously, wondering whether this aggressive +youth would go so far as to commit himself in any way. + +"Oh, well, as to that," MacDonald replied, with a deprecatory wave +of his hand, "I couldn't say. It ought to bear a reasonable +relationship to the value of the utility as it now stands. I +should want to think that over. I shouldn't want to see the city +demand anything unreasonable. Certainly, though, there is a +privilege here that is worth something." + +Cowperwood flared inwardly. His greatest weakness, if he had one, +was that he could but ill brook opposition of any kind. This young +upstart, with his thin, cool face and sharp, hard eyes! He would +have liked to tell him and his paper to go to the devil. He went +away, hoping that he could influence the Inquirer in some other +way upon the old General's return. + +As he was sitting next morning in his office in North Clark Street +he was aroused by the still novel-sounding bell of the telephone +--one of the earliest in use--on the wall back of him. After a +parley with his secretary, he was informed that a gentleman connected +with the Inquirer wished to speak with him. + +"This is the Inquirer," said a voice which Cowperwood, his ear to +the receiver, thought he recognized as that of young Truman +MacDonald, the General's son. "You wanted to know," continued the +voice, "what would be considered adequate compensation so far as +that tunnel matter is concerned. Can you hear me?" + +"Yes," replied Cowperwood. + +"Well, I should not care to influence your judgment one way or the +other; but if my opinion were asked I should say about fifty +thousand dollars' worth of North Chicago Street Railway stock +would be satisfactory." + +The voice was young, clear, steely. + +"To whom would you suggest that it might be paid?" Cowperwood +asked, softly, quite genially. + +"That, also, I would suggest, might be left to your very sound +judgment." + +The voice ceased. The receiver was hung up. + +"Well, I'll be damned!" Cowperwood said, looking at the floor +reflectively. A smile spread over his face. "I'm not going to +be held up like that. I don't need to be. It isn't worth it. +Not at present, anyhow." His teeth set. + +He was underestimating Mr. Truman Leslie MacDonald, principally +because he did not like him. He thought his father might return +and oust him. It was one of the most vital mistakes he ever made +in his life. + + + + +Chapter XXIV + + + +The Coming of Stephanie Platow + +During this period of what might have been called financial and +commercial progress, the affairs of Aileen and Cowperwood had been +to a certain extent smoothed over. Each summer now, partly to +take Aileen's mind off herself and partly to satisfy his own desire +to see the world and collect objects of art, in which he was +becoming more and more interested, it was Cowperwood's custom to +make with his wife a short trip abroad or to foreign American +lands, visiting in these two years Russia, Scandinavia, Argentine, +Chili, and Mexico. Their plan was to leave in May or June with +the outward rush of traffic, and return in September or early +October. His idea was to soothe Aileen as much as possible, to +fill her mind with pleasing anticipations as to her eventual social +triumph somewhere--in New York or London, if not Chicago--to make +her feel that in spite of his physical desertion he was still +spiritually loyal. + +By now also Cowperwood was so shrewd that he had the ability to +simulate an affection and practise a gallantry which he did not +feel, or, rather, that was not backed by real passion. He was the +soul of attention; he would buy her flowers, jewels, knickknacks, +and ornaments; he would see that her comfort was looked after to +the last detail; and yet, at the very same moment, perhaps, he +would be looking cautiously about to see what life might offer in +the way of illicit entertainment. Aileen knew this, although she +could not prove it to be true. At the same time she had an affection +and an admiration for the man which gripped her in spite of +herself. + +You have, perhaps, pictured to yourself the mood of some general +who has perhaps suffered a great defeat; the employee who after +years of faithful service finds himself discharged. What shall +life say to the loving when their love is no longer of any value, +when all that has been placed upon the altar of affection has been +found to be a vain sacrifice? Philosophy? Give that to dolls to +play with. Religion? Seek first the metaphysical-minded. Aileen +was no longer the lithe, forceful, dynamic girl of 1865, when +Cowperwood first met her. She was still beautiful, itis true, a +fair, full-blown, matronly creature not more than thirty-five, +looking perhaps thirty, feeling, alas, that she was a girl and +still as attractive as ever. It is a grim thing to a woman, however +fortunately placed, to realize that age is creeping on, and that +love, that singing will-o'-the-wisp, is fading into the ultimate +dark. Aileen, within the hour of her greatest triumph, had seen +love die. It was useless to tell herself, as she did sometimes, +that it might come back, revive. Her ultimately realistic temperament +told her this could never be. Though she had routed Rita Sohlberg, +she was fully aware that Cowperwood's original constancy was gone. +She was no longer happy. Love was dead. That sweet illusion, +with its pearly pink for heart and borders, that laughing cherub +that lures with Cupid's mouth and misty eye, that young tendril +of the vine of life that whispers of eternal spring-time, that +calls and calls where aching, wearied feet by legion follow, was +no longer in existence. + +In vain the tears, the storms, the self-tortures; in vain the looks +in the mirror, the studied examination of plump, sweet features +still fresh and inviting. One day, at the sight of tired circles +under her eyes, she ripped from her neck a lovely ruche that she +was adjusting and, throwing herself on her bed, cried as though +her heart would break. Why primp? Why ornament? Her Frank did not +love her. What to her now was a handsome residence in Michigan +Avenue, the refinements of a French boudoir, or clothing that ran +the gamut of the dressmaker's art, hats that were like orchids +blooming in serried rows? In vain, in vain! Like the raven that +perched above the lintel of the door, sad memory was here, grave +in her widow weeds, crying "never more." Aileen knew that the sweet +illusion which had bound Cowperwood to her for a time had gone +and would never come again. He was here. His step was in the +room mornings and evenings; at night for long prosaic, uninterrupted +periods she could hear him breathing by her side, his hand on her +body. There were other nights when he was not there--when he was +"out of the city"--and she resigned herself to accept his excuses +at their face value. Why quarrel? she asked herself. What could +she do? She was waiting, waiting, but for what? + +And Cowperwood, noting the strange, unalterable changes which time +works in us all, the inward lap of the marks of age, the fluted +recession of that splendor and radiance which is youth, sighed at +times perhaps, but turned his face to that dawn which is forever +breaking where youth is. Not for him that poetic loyalty which +substitutes for the perfection of young love its memories, or takes +for the glitter of passion and desire that once was the happy +thoughts of companionship--the crystal memories that like early +dews congealed remain beaded recollections to comfort or torture +for the end of former joys. On the contrary, after the vanishing +of Rita Sohlberg, with all that she meant in the way of a delicate +insouciance which Aileen had never known, his temperament ached, +for he must have something like that. Truth to say, he must always +have youth, the illusion of beauty, vanity in womanhood, the novelty +of a new, untested temperament, quite as he must have pictures, +old porcelain, music, a mansion, illuminated missals, power, the +applause of the great, unthinking world. + +As has been said, this promiscuous attitude on Cowperwood's part +was the natural flowering out of a temperament that was chronically +promiscuous, intellectually uncertain, and philosophically +anarchistic. From one point of view it might have been said of +him that he was seeking the realization of an ideal, yet to one's +amazement our very ideals change at times and leave us floundering +in the dark. What is an ideal, anyhow? A wraith, a mist, a perfume +in the wind, a dream of fair water. The soul-yearning of a girl +like Antoinette Nowak was a little too strained for him. It was +too ardent, too clinging, and he had gradually extricated himself, +not without difficulty, from that particular entanglement. Since +then he had been intimate with other women for brief periods, but +to no great satisfaction--Dorothy Ormsby, Jessie Belle Hinsdale, +Toma Lewis, Hilda Jewell; but they shall be names merely. One was +an actress, one a stenographer, one the daughter of one of his +stock patrons, one a church-worker, a solicitor for charity coming +to him to seek help for an orphan's home. It was a pathetic mess +at times, but so are all defiant variations from the accustomed +drift of things. In the hardy language of Napoleon, one cannot +make an omelette without cracking a number of eggs. + +The coming of Stephanie Platow, Russian Jewess on one side of her +family, Southwestern American on the other, was an event in +Cowperwood's life. She was tall, graceful, brilliant, young, with +much of the optimism of Rita Sohlberg, and yet endowed with a +strange fatalism which, once he knew her better, touched and moved +him. He met her on shipboard on the way to Goteborg. Her father, +Isadore Platow, was a wealthy furrier of Chicago. He was a large, +meaty, oily type of man--a kind of ambling, gelatinous formula of +the male, with the usual sound commercial instincts of the Jew, +but with an errant philosophy which led him to believe first one +thing and then another so long as neither interfered definitely +with his business. He was an admirer of Henry George and of so +altruistic a programme as that of Robert Owen, and, also, in his +way, a social snob. And yet he had married Susetta Osborn, a Texas +girl who was once his bookkeeper. Mrs. Platow was lithe, amiable, +subtle, with an eye always to the main social chance--in other +words, a climber. She was shrewd enough to realize that a knowledge +of books and art and current events was essential, and so she "went +in" for these things. + +It is curious how the temperaments of parents blend and revivify +in their children. As Stephanie grew up she had repeated in her +very differing body some of her father's and mother's characteristics +--an interesting variability of soul. She was tall, dark, sallow, +lithe, with a strange moodiness of heart and a recessive, fulgurous +gleam in her chestnut-brown, almost brownish-black eyes. She had +a full, sensuous, Cupid's mouth, a dreamy and even languishing +expression, a graceful neck, and a heavy, dark, and yet pleasingly +modeled face. From both her father and mother she had inherited +a penchant for art, literature, philosophy, and music. Already +at eighteen she was dreaming of painting, singing, writing poetry, +writing books, acting--anything and everything. Serene in her own +judgment of what was worth while, she was like to lay stress on +any silly mood or fad, thinking it exquisite--the last word. +Finally, she was a rank voluptuary, dreaming dreams of passionate +union with first one and then another type of artist, poet, +musician--the whole gamut of the artistic and emotional world. + +Cowperwood first saw her on board the Centurion one June morning, +as the ship lay at dock in New York. He and Aileen were en route +for Norway, she and her father and mother for Denmark and Switzerland. +She was hanging over the starboard rail looking at a flock of +wide-winged gulls which were besieging the port of the cook's +galley. She was musing soulfully--conscious (fully) that she was +musing soulfully. He paid very little attention to her, except +to note that she was tall, rhythmic, and that a dark-gray plaid +dress, and an immense veil of gray silk wound about her shoulders +and waist and over one arm, after the manner of a Hindu shawl, +appeared to become her much. Her face seemed very sallow, and her +eyes ringed as if indicating dyspepsia. Her black hair under a +chic hat did not escape his critical eye. Later she and her father +appeared at the captain's table, to which the Cowperwoods had also +been invited. + +Cowperwood and Aileen did not know how to take this girl, though +she interested them both. They little suspected the chameleon +character of her soul. She was an artist, and as formless and +unstable as water. It was a mere passing gloom that possessed +her. Cowperwood liked the semi-Jewish cast of her face, a certain +fullness of the neck, her dark, sleepy eyes. But she was much too +young and nebulous, he thought, and he let her pass. On this trip, +which endured for ten days, he saw much of her, in different moods, +walking with a young Jew in whom she seemed greatly interested, +playing at shuffleboard, reading solemnly in a corner out of the +reach of the wind or spray, and usually looking naive, preternaturally +innocent, remote, dreamy. At other times she seemed possessed of +a wild animation, her eyes alight, her expression vigorous, an +intense glow in her soul. Once he saw her bent over a small wood +block, cutting a book-plate with a thin steel graving tool. + +Because of Stephanie's youth and seeming unimportance, her lack +of what might be called compelling rosy charm, Aileen had become +reasonably friendly with the girl. Far subtler, even at her years, +than Aileen, Stephanie gathered a very good impression of the +former, of her mental girth, and how to take her. She made friends +with her, made a book-plate for her, made a sketch of her. She +confided to Aileen that in her own mind she was destined for the +stage, if her parents would permit; and Aileen invited her to see +her husband's pictures on their return. She little knew how much +of a part Stephanie would play in Cowperwood's life. + +The Cowperwoods, having been put down at Goteborg, saw no more of +the Platows until late October. Then Aileen, being lonely, called +to see Stephanie, and occasionally thereafter Stephanie came over +to the South Side to see the Cowperwoods. She liked to roam about +their house, to dream meditatively in some nook of the rich interior, +with a book for company. She liked Cowperwood's pictures, his +jades, his missals, his ancient radiant glass. From talking with +Aileen she realized that the latter had no real love for these +things, that her expressions of interest and pleasure were pure +make-believe, based on their value as possessions. For Stephanie +herself certain of the illuminated books and bits of glass had a +heavy, sensuous appeal, which only the truly artistic can understand. +They unlocked dark dream moods and pageants for her. She responded +to them, lingered over them, experienced strange moods from them +as from the orchestrated richness of music. + +And in doing so she thought of Cowperwood often. Did he really +like these things, or was he just buying them to be buying them? +She had heard much of the pseudo artistic--the people who made a +show of art. She recalled Cowperwood as he walked the deck of the +Centurion. She remembered his large, comprehensive, embracing +blue-gray eyes that seemed to blaze with intelligence. He seemed +to her quite obviously a more forceful and significant man than +her father, and yet she could not have said why. He always seemed +so trigly dressed, so well put together. There was a friendly +warmth about all that he said or did, though he said or did little. +She felt that his eyes were mocking, that back in his soul there +was some kind of humor over something which she did not understand +quite. + +After Stephanie had been back in Chicago six months, during which +time she saw very little of Cowperwood, who was busy with his +street-railway programme, she was swept into the net of another +interest which carried her away from him and Aileen for the time +being. On the West Side, among a circle of her mother's friends, +had been organized an Amateur Dramatic League, with no less object +than to elevate the stage. That world-old problem never fails to +interest the new and the inexperienced. It all began in the home +of one of the new rich of the West Side--the Timberlakes. They, +in their large house on Ashland Avenue, had a stage, and Georgia +Timberlake, a romantic-minded girl of twenty with flaxen hair, +imagined she could act. Mrs. Timberlake, a fat, indulgent mother, +rather agreed with her. The whole idea, after a few discursive +performances of Milton's "The Masque of Comus," "Pyramus and +Thisbe," and an improved Harlequin and Columbine, written by one +of the members, was transferred to the realm of the studios, then +quartered in the New Arts Building. An artist by the name of Lane +Cross, a portrait-painter, who was much less of an artist than he +was a stage director, and not much of either, but who made his +living by hornswaggling society into the belief that he could +paint, was induced to take charge of these stage performances. + +By degrees the "Garrick Players," as they chose to call themselves, +developed no little skill and craftsmanship in presenting one form +and another of classic and semi-classic play. "Romeo and Juliet," +with few properties of any kind, "The Learned Ladies" of Moliere, +Sheridan's "The Rivals," and the "Elektra" of Sophocles were all +given. Considerable ability of one kind and another was developed, +the group including two actresses of subsequent repute on the +American stage, one of whom was Stephanie Platow. There were some +ten girls and women among the active members, and almost as many +men--a variety of characters much too extended to discuss here. +There was a dramatic critic by the name of Gardner Knowles, a young +man, very smug and handsome, who was connected with the Chicago +Press. Whipping his neatly trousered legs with his bright little +cane, he used to appear at the rooms of the players at the Tuesday, +Thursday, and Saturday teas which they inaugurated, and discuss +the merits of the venture. Thus the Garrick Players were gradually +introduced into the newspapers. Lane Cross, the smooth-faced, +pasty-souled artist who had charge, was a rake at heart, a subtle +seducer of women, who, however, escaped detection by a smooth, +conventional bearing. He was interested in such girls as Georgia +Timberlake, Irma Ottley, a rosy, aggressive maiden who essayed +comic roles, and Stephanie Platow. These, with another girl, Ethel +Tuckerman, very emotional and romantic, who could dance charmingly +and sing, made up a group of friends which became very close. +Presently intimacies sprang up, only in this realm, instead of +ending in marriage, they merely resulted in sex liberty. Thus +Ethel Tuckerman became the mistress of Lane Cross; an illicit +attachment grew up between Irma Ottley and a young society idler +by the name of Bliss Bridge; and Gardner Knowles, ardently admiring +Stephanie Platow literally seized upon her one afternoon in her +own home, when he went ostensibly to interview her, and overpersuaded +her. She was only reasonably fond of him, not in love; but, being +generous, nebulous, passionate, emotional, inexperienced, voiceless, +and vainly curious, without any sense of the meums and teums that +govern society in such matters, she allowed this rather brutal +thing to happen. She was not a coward--was too nebulous and yet +forceful to be such. Her parents never knew. And once so launched, +another world--that of sex satisfaction--began to dawn on her. + +Were these young people evil? Let the social philosopher answer. +One thing is certain: They did not establish homes and raise +children. On the contrary, they led a gay, butterfly existence +for nearly two years; then came a gift in the lute. Quarrels +developed over parts, respective degrees of ability, and leadership. +Ethel Tuckerman fell out with Lane Cross, because she discovered +him making love to Irma Ottley. Irma and Bliss Bridge released +each other, the latter transferring his affections to Georgia +Timberlake. Stephanie Platow, by far the most individual of them +all, developed a strange inconsequence as to her deeds. It was +when she was drawing near the age of twenty that the affair with +Gardner Knowles began. After a time Lane Cross, with his somewhat +earnest attempt at artistic interpretation and his superiority in +the matter of years--he was forty, and young Knowles only twenty-four +--seemed more interesting to Stephanie, and he was quick to respond. +There followed an idle, passionate union with this man, which seemed +important, but was not so at all. And then it was that Stephanie +began dimly to perceive that it was on and on that the blessings +lie, that somewhere there might be some man much more remarkable +than either of these; but this was only a dream. She thought of +Cowperwood at times; but he seemed to her to be too wrapped up in +grim tremendous things, far apart from this romantic world of +amateur dramatics in which she was involved. + + + + +Chapter XXV + + + +Airs from the Orient + +Cowperwood gained his first real impression of Stephanie at the +Garrick Players, where he went with Aileen once to witness a +performance of "Elektra." He liked Stephanie particularly in this +part, and thought her beautiful. One evening not long afterward +he noticed her in his own home looking at his jades, particularly +a row of bracelets and ear-rings. He liked the rhythmic outline +of her body, which reminded him of a letter S in motion. Quite +suddenly it came over him that she was a remarkable girl--very +--destined, perhaps, to some significant future. At the same time +Stephanie was thinking of him. + +"Do you find them interesting?" he asked, stopping beside her. + +"I think they're wonderful. Those dark-greens, and that pale, +fatty white! I can see how beautiful they would be in a Chinese +setting. I have always wished we could find a Chinese or Japanese +play to produce sometime." + +"Yes, with your black hair those ear-rings would look well," said +Cowperwood. + +He had never deigned to comment on a feature of hers before. She +turned her dark, brown-black eyes on him--velvety eyes with a kind +of black glow in them--and now he noticed how truly fine they were, +and how nice were her hands--brown almost as a Malay's. + +He said nothing more; but the next day an unlabeled box was delivered +to Stephanie at her home containing a pair of jade ear-rings, a +bracelet, and a brooch with Chinese characters intagliated. +Stephanie was beside herself with delight. She gathered them up +in her hands and kissed them, fastening the ear-rings in her ears +and adjusting the bracelet and ring. Despite her experience with +her friends and relatives, her stage associates, and her paramours, +she was still a little unschooled in the world. Her heart was +essentially poetic and innocent. No one had ever given her much +of anything--not even her parents. Her allowance thus far in life +had been a pitiful six dollars a week outside of her clothing. As +she surveyed these pretty things in the privacy of her room she +wondered oddly whether Cowperwood was growing to like her. Would +such a strong, hard business man be interested in her? She had +heard her father say he was becoming very rich. Was she a great +actress, as some said she was, and would strong, able types of men +like Cowperwood take to her--eventually? She had heard of Rachel, +of Nell Gwynne, of the divine Sarah and her loves. She took the +precious gifts and locked them in a black-iron box which was sacred +to her trinkets and her secrets. + +The mere acceptance of these things in silence was sufficient +indication to Cowperwood that she was of a friendly turn of mind. +He waited patiently until one day a letter came to his office--not +his house--addressed, "Frank Algernon Cowperwood, Personal." It +was written in a small, neat, careful hand, almost printed. + +I don't know how to thank you for your wonderful present. I didn't +mean you should give them to me, and I know you sent them. I shall +keep them with pleasure and wear them with delight. It was so +nice of you to do this. + + STEPHANIE PLATOW. + +Cowperwood studied the handwriting, the paper, the phraseology. +For a girl of only a little over twenty this was wise and reserved +and tactful. She might have written to him at his residence. He +gave her the benefit of a week's time, and then found her in his +own home one Sunday afternoon. Aileen had gone calling, and +Stephanie was pretending to await her return. + +"It's nice to see you there in that window," he said. "You fit +your background perfectly." + +"Do I?" The black-brown eyes burned soulfully. The panneling back +of her was of dark oak, burnished by the rays of an afternoon +winter sun. + +Stephanie Platow had dressed for this opportunity. Her full, +rich, short black hair was caught by a childish band of blood-red +ribbon, holding it low over her temples and ears. Her lithe body, +so harmonious in its graven roundness, was clad in an apple-green +bodice, and a black skirt with gussets of red about the hem; her +smooth arms, from the elbows down, were bare. On one wrist was +the jade bracelet he had given her. Her stockings were apple-green +silk, and, despite the chill of the day, her feet were shod in +enticingly low slippers with brass buckles. + +Cowperwood retired to the hall to hang up his overcoat and came +back smiling. + +"Isn't Mrs. Cowperwood about?" + +"The butler says she's out calling, but I thought I'd wait a little +while, anyhow. She may come back." + +She turned up a dark, smiling face to him, with languishing, +inscrutable eyes, and he recognized the artist at last, full and +clear. + +"I see you like my bracelet, don't you?" + +"It's beautiful," she replied, looking down and surveying it +dreamily. "I don't always wear it. I carry it in my muff. I've +just put it on for a little while. I carry them all with me always. +I love them so. I like to feel them." + +She opened a small chamois bag beside her--lying with her handkerchief +and a sketch-book which she always carried--and took out the ear-rings +and brooch. + +Cowperwood glowed with a strange feeling of approval and enthusiasm +at this manifestation of real interest. He liked jade himself +very much, but more than that the feeling that prompted this +expression in another. Roughly speaking, it might have been said +of him that youth and hope in women--particularly youth when combined +with beauty and ambition in a girl--touched him. He responded +keenly to her impulse to do or be something in this world, whatever +it might be, and he looked on the smart, egoistic vanity of so +many with a kindly, tolerant, almost parental eye. Poor little +organisms growing on the tree of life--they would burn out and +fade soon enough. He did not know the ballad of the roses of +yesteryear, but if he had it would have appealed to him. He did +not care to rifle them, willy-nilly; but should their temperaments +or tastes incline them in his direction, they would not suffer +vastly in their lives because of him. The fact was, the man was +essentially generous where women were concerned. + +"How nice of you!" he commented, smiling. "I like that." And then, +seeing a note-book and pencil beside her, he asked, "What are you +doing?" + +"Just sketching." + +"Let me see?" + +"It's nothing much," she replied, deprecatingly. "I don't draw +very well." + +"Gifted girl!" he replied, picking it up. "Paints, draws, carves +on wood, plays, sings, acts." + +"All rather badly," she sighed, turning her head languidly and +looking away. In her sketch-book she had put all of her best +drawings; there were sketches of nude women, dancers, torsos, bits +of running figures, sad, heavy, sensuous heads and necks of sleeping +girls, chins up, eyelids down, studies of her brothers and sister, +and of her father and mother. + +"Delightful!" exclaimed Cowperwood, keenly alive to a new treasure. +Good heavens, where had been his eyes all this while? Here was a +jewel lying at his doorstep--innocent, untarnished--a real jewel. +These drawings suggested a fire of perception, smoldering and +somber, which thrilled him. + +"These are beautiful to me, Stephanie," he said, simply, a strange, +uncertain feeling of real affection creeping over him. The man's +greatest love was for art. It was hypnotic to him. "Did you ever +study art?" he asked. + +"No." + +"And you never studied acting?" + +"No." + +She shook her head in a slow, sad, enticing way. The black hair +concealing her ears moved him strangely. + +"I know the art of your stage work is real, and you have a natural +art which I just seem to see. What has been the matter with me, +anyhow?" + +"Oh no," she sighed. "It seems to me that I merely play at +everything. I could cry sometimes when I think how I go on." + +"At twenty?" + +"That is old enough," she smiled, archly. + +"Stephanie," he asked, cautiously, "how old are you, exactly?" + +"I will be twenty-one in April," she answered. + +"Have your parents been very strict with you?" + +She shook her head dreamily. "No; what makes you ask? They haven't +paid very much attention to me. They've always liked Lucille and +Gilbert and Ormond best." Her voice had a plaintive, neglected +ring. It was the voice she used in her best scenes on the stage. + +"Don't they realize that you are very talented?" + +"I think perhaps my mother feels that I may have some ability. +My father doesn't, I'm sure. Why?" + +She lifted those languorous, plaintive eyes. + +"Why, Stephanie, if you want to know, I think you're wonderful. +I thought so the other night when you were looking at those jades. +It all came over me. You are an artist, truly, and I have been +so busy I have scarcely seen it. Tell me one thing." + +"Yes." + +She drew in a soft breath, filling her chest and expanding her +bosom, while she looked at him from under her black hair. Her +hands were crossed idly in her lap. Then she looked demurely down. + +"Look, Stephanie! Look up! I want to ask you something. You have +known something of me for over a year. Do you like me?" + +"I think you're very wonderful," she murmured. + +"Is that all?" + +"Isn't that much?" she smiled, shooting a dull, black-opal look +in his direction. + +"You wore my bracelet to-day. Were you very glad to get it?" + +"Oh yes," she sighed, with aspirated breath, pretending a kind of +suffocation. + +"How beautiful you really are!" he said, rising and looking down +at her. + +She shook her head. + +"No." + +"Yes!" + +"No." + +"Come, Stephanie! Stand by me and look at me. You are so tall and +slender and graceful. You are like something out of Asia." + +She sighed, turning in a sinuous way, as he slipped his arm her. +"I don't think we should, should we?" she asked, naively, after a +moment, pulling away from him. + +"Stephanie!" + +"I think I'd better go, now, please." + + + + +Chapter XXVI + + + +Love and War + +It was during the earlier phases of his connection with Chicago +street-railways that Cowperwood, ardently interesting himself in +Stephanie Platow, developed as serious a sex affair as any that +had yet held him. At once, after a few secret interviews with +her, he adopted his favorite ruse in such matters and established +bachelor quarters in the down-town section as a convenient +meeting-ground. Several conversations with Stephanie were not +quite as illuminating as they might have been, for, wonderful as +she was--a kind of artistic godsend in this dull Western atmosphere +--she was also enigmatic and elusive, very. He learned speedily, +in talking with her on several days when they met for lunch, of +her dramatic ambitions, and of the seeming spiritual and artistic +support she required from some one who would have faith in her and +inspire her by his or her confidence. He learned all about the +Garrick Players, her home intimacies and friends, the growing +quarrels in the dramatic organization. He asked her, as they sat +in a favorite and inconspicuous resort of his finding, during one +of those moments when blood and not intellect was ruling between +them, whether she had ever-- + +"Once," she naively admitted. + +It was a great shock to Cowperwood. He had fancied her refreshingly +innocent. But she explained it was all so accidental, so unintentional +on her part, very. She described it all so gravely, soulfully, +pathetically, with such a brooding, contemplative backward searching +of the mind, that he was astonished and in a way touched. What a +pity! It was Gardner Knowles who had done this, she admitted. But +he was not very much to blame, either. It just happened. She had +tried to protest, but-- Wasn't she angry? Yes, but then she was +sorry to do anything to hurt Gardner Knowles. He was such a charming +boy, and he had such a lovely mother and sister, and the like. + +Cowperwood was astonished. He had reached that point in life where +the absence of primal innocence in a woman was not very significant; +but in Stephanie, seeing that she was so utterly charming, it was +almost too bad. He thought what fools the Platows must be to +tolerate this art atmosphere for Stephanie without keeping a sharp +watch over it. Nevertheless, he was inclined to believe from +observation thus far that Stephanie might be hard to watch. She +was ingrainedly irresponsible, apparently--so artistically nebulous, +so non-self-protective. To go on and be friends with this scamp! +And yet she protested that never after that had there been the +least thing between them. Cowperwood could scarcely believe it. +She must be lying, and yet he liked her so. The very romantic, +inconsequential way in which she narrated all this staggered, +amused, and even fascinated him. + +"But, Stephanie," he argued, curiously, "there must been some +aftermath to all this. What happened? What did you do?" + +"Nothing." She shook her head. + +He had to smile. + +"But oh, don't let's talk about it!" she pleaded. "I don't want +to. It hurts me. There was nothing more." + +She sighed, and Cowperwood meditated. The evil was now done, and +the best that he could do, if he cared for her at all--and he +did--was to overlook it. He surveyed her oddly, wonderingly. +What a charming soul she was, anyhow! How naive--how brooding! She +had art--lots of it. Did he want to give her up? + +As he might have known, it was dangerous to trifle with a type of +this kind, particularly once awakened to the significance of +promiscuity, and unless mastered by some absorbing passion. +Stephanie had had too much flattery and affection heaped upon her +in the past two years to be easily absorbed. Nevertheless, for +the time being, anyhow, she was fascinated by the significance of +Cowperwood. It was wonderful to have so fine, so powerful a man +care for her. She conceived of him as a very great artist in his +realm rather than as a business man, and he grasped this fact +after a very little while and appreciated it. To his delight, she +was even more beautiful physically than he had anticipated--a +smoldering, passionate girl who met him with a fire which, though +somber, quite rivaled his own. She was different, too, in her +languorous acceptance of all that he bestowed from any one he had +ever known. She was as tactful as Rita Sohlberg--more so--but so +preternaturally silent at times. + +"Stephanie," he would exclaim, "do talk. What are you thinking +of? You dream like an African native." + +She merely sat and smiled in a dark way or sketched or modeled +him. She was constantly penciling something, until moved by the +fever of her blood, when she would sit and look at him or brood +silently, eyes down. Then, when he would reach for her with seeking +hands, she would sigh, "Oh yes, oh yes!" + +Those were delightful days with Stephanie. + +In the matter of young MacDonald's request for fifty thousand +dollars in securities, as well as the attitude of the other +editors--Hyssop, Braxton, Ricketts, and so on--who had proved +subtly critical, Cowperwood conferred with Addison and McKenty. + +"A likely lad, that," commented McKenty, succintly, when he heard +it. "He'll do better than his father in one way, anyhow. He'll +probably make more money." + +McKenty had seen old General MacDonald just once in his life, and +liked him. + +"I should like to know what the General would think of that if he +knew," commented Addison, who admired the old editor greatly. +"I'm afraid he wouldn't sleep very well." + +"There is just one thing," observed Cowperwood, thoughtfully. +"This young man will certainly come into control of the Inquirer +sometime. He looks to me like some one who would not readily +forget an injury." He smiled sardonically. So did McKenty and +Addison. + +"Be that as it may," suggested the latter, "he isn't editor yet." +McKenty, who never revealed his true views to any one but Cowperwood, +waited until he had the latter alone to observe: + +What can they do? Your request is a reasonable one. Why shouldn't +the city give you the tunnel? It's no good to anyone as it is. +And the loop is no more than the other roads have now. I'm thinking +it's the Chicago City Railway and that silk-stocking crowd on State +Street or that gas crowd that's talking against you. I've heard +them before. Give them what they want, and it's a fine moral +cause. Give it to anyone else, and there's something wrong with +it. It's little attention I pay to them. We have the council, +let it pass the ordinances. It can't be proved that they don't +do it willingly. The mayor is a sensible man. He'll sign them. +Let young MacDonald talk if he wants to. If he says too much you +can talk to his father. As for Hyssop, he's an old grandmother +anyhow. I've never known him to be for a public improvement yet +that was really good for Chicago unless Schryhart or Merrill or +Arneel or someone else of that crowd wanted it. I know them of +old. My advice is to go ahead and never mind them. To hell with +them! Things will be sweet enough, once you are as powerful as +they are. They'll get nothing in the future without paying for +it. It's little enough they've ever done to further anything that +I wanted. + +Cowperwood, however, remained cool and thoughtful. Should he pay +young MacDonald? he asked himself. Addison knew of no influence +that he could bring to bear. Finally, after much thought, he +decided to proceed as he had planned. Consequently, the reporters +around the City Hall and the council-chamber, who were in touch +with Alderman Thomas Dowling, McKenty's leader on the floor of +council, and those who called occasionally--quite regularly, in +fact--at the offices of the North Chicago Street Railway Company, +Cowperwood's comfortable new offices in the North Side, were now +given to understand that two ordinances--one granting the free use +of the La Salle Street tunnel for an unlimited period (practically +a gift of it), and another granting a right of way in La Salle, +Munroe, Dearborn, and Randolph streets for the proposed loop--would +be introduced in council very shortly. Cowperwood granted a very +flowery interview, in which he explained quite enthusiastically +all that the North Chicago company was doing and proposed to do, +and made clear what a splendid development it would assure to the +North Side and to the business center. + +At once Schryhart, Merrill, and some individuals connected with +the Chicago West Division Company, began to complain in the newspaper +offices and at the clubs to Ricketts, Braxton, young MacDonald, +and the other editors. Envy of the pyrotechnic progress of the +man was as much a factor in this as anything else. It did not +make the slightest difference, as Cowperwood had sarcastically +pointed out, that every other corporation of any significance in +Chicago had asked and received without money and without price. +Somehow his career in connection with Chicago gas, his venturesome, +if unsuccessful effort to enter Chicago society, his self-acknowledged +Philadelphia record, rendered the sensitive cohorts of the +ultra-conservative exceedingly fearful. In Schryhart's Chronicle +appeared a news column which was headed, "Plain Grab of City Tunnel +Proposed." It was a very truculent statement, and irritated +Cowperwood greatly. The Press (Mr. Haguenin's paper), on the other +hand, was most cordial to the idea of the loop, while appearing +to be a little uncertain as to whether the tunnel should be granted +without compensation or not. Editor Hyssop felt called upon to +insist that something more than merely nominal compensation should +be made for the tunnel, and that "riders" should be inserted in +the loop ordinance making it incumbent upon the North Chicago +company to keep those thoroughfares in full repair and well lighted. +The Inquirer, under Mr. MacDonald, junior, and Mr. Du Bois, was +in rumbling opposition. No free tunnels, it cried; no free +ordinances for privileges in the down-town heart. It had nothing +to say about Cowperwood personally. The Globe, Mr. Braxton's +paper, was certain that no free rights to the tunnel should be +given, and that a much better route for the loop could be found--one +larger and more serviceable to the public, one that might be made +to include State Street or Wabash Avenue, or both, where Mr. +Merrill's store was located. So it went, and one could see quite +clearly to what extent the interests of the public figured in the +majority of these particular viewpoints. + +Cowperwood, individual, reliant, utterly indifferent to opposition +of any kind, was somewhat angered by the manner in which his +overtures had been received, but still felt that the best way out +of his troubles was to follow McKenty's advice and get power first. +Once he had his cable-conduit down, his new cars running, the +tunnel rebuilt, brilliantly lighted, and the bridge crush disposed +of, the public would see what a vast change for the better had +been made and would support him. Finally all things were in readiness +and the ordinance jammed through. McKenty, being a little dubious +of the outcome, had a rocking-chair brought into the council-chamber +itself during the hours when the ordinances were up for consideration. +In this he sat, presumably as a curious spectator, actually as a +master dictating the course of liquidation in hand. Neither +Cowperwood nor any one else knew of McKenty's action until too +late to interfere with it. Addison and Videra, when they read +about it as sneeringly set forth in the news columns of the papers, +lifted and then wrinkled their eyebrows. + +"That looks like pretty rough work to me," commented Addison. "I +thought McKenty had more tact. That's his early Irish training." + +Alexander Rambaud, who was an admirer and follower of Cowperwood's, +wondered whether the papers were lying, whether it really could +be true that Cowperwood had a serious political compact with McKenty +which would allow him to walk rough-shod over public opinion. +Rambaud considered Cowperwood's proposition so sane and reasonable +that he could not understand why there should be serious opposition, +or why Cowperwood and McKenty should have to resort to such methods. + +However, the streets requisite for the loop were granted. The +tunnel was leased for nine hundred and ninety-nine years at the +nominal sum of five thousand dollars per year. It was understood +that the old bridges over State, Dearborn, and Clark streets should +be put in repair or removed; but there was "a joker" inserted +elsewhere which nullified this. Instantly there were stormy +outbursts in the Chronicle, Inquirer, and Globe; but Cowperwood, +when he read them, merely smiled. "Let them grumble," he said to +himself. "I put a very reasonable proposition before them. Why +should they complain? I'm doing more now than the Chicago City +Railway. It's jealousy, that's all. If Schryhart or Merrill had +asked for it, there would have been no complaint. + +McKenty called at the offices of the Chicago Trust Company to +congratulate Cowperwood. "The boys did as I thought they would," +he said. "I had to be there, though, for I heard some one say +that about ten of them intended to ditch us at the last moment." + +"Good work, good work!" replied Cowperwood, cheerfully. "This row +will all blow over. It would be the same whenever we asked. The +air will clear up. We'll give them such a fine service that they'll +forget all about this, and be glad they gave us the tunnel." + +Just the same, the morning after the enabling ordinances had passed, +there was much derogatory comment in influential quarters. Mr. +Norman Schryhart, who, through his publisher, had been fulminating +defensively against Cowperwood, stared solemnly at Mr. Ricketts +when they met. + +"Well," said the magnate, who imagined he foresaw a threatened +attack on his Chicago City Street Railway preserves, "I see our +friend Mr. Cowperwood has managed to get his own way with the +council. I am morally certain he uses money to get what he is +after as freely as a fireman uses water. He's as slippery as an +eel. I should be glad if we could establish that there is a +community of interest between him and these politicians around +City Hall, or between him and Mr. McKenty. I believe he has set +out to dominate this city politically as well as financially, and +he'll need constant watching. If public opinion can be aroused +against him he may be dislodged in the course of time. Chicago +may get too uncomfortable for him. I know Mr. McKenty personally, +but he is not the kind of man I care to do business with." + +Mr. Schryhart's method of negotiating at City Hall was through +certain reputable but somewhat slow-going lawyers who were in the +employ of the South Side company. They had never been able to +reach Mr. McKenty at all. Ricketts echoed a hearty approval. +"You're very right," he said, with owlish smugness, adjusting a +waistcoat button that had come loose, and smoothing his cuffs. +"He's a prince of politicians. We'll have to look sharp if we +ever trap him" Mr. Ricketts would have been glad to sell out to Mr. +Cowperwood, if he had not been so heavily obligated to Mr. Schryhart. +He had no especial affection for Cowperwood, but he recognized +in him a coming man. + +Young MacDonald, talking to Clifford Du Bois in the office of the +Inquirer, and reflecting how little his private telephone message +had availed him, was in a waspish, ironic frame of mind. + +"Well," he said, "it seems our friend Cowperwood hasn't taken our +advice. He may make his mark, but the Inquirer isn't through with +him by a long shot. He'll be wanting other things from the city +in the future." + +Clifford Du Bois regarded his acid young superior with a curious +eye. He knew nothing of MacDonald's private telephone message to +Cowperwood; but he knew how he himself would have dealt with the +crafty financier had he been in MacDonald's position. + +"Yes, Cowperwood is shrewd," was his comment. "Pritchard, our +political man, says the ways of the City Hall are greased straight +up to the mayor and McKenty, and that Cowperwood can have anything +he wants at any time. Tom Dowling eats out of his hand, and you +know what that means. Old General Van Sickle is working for him +in some way. Did you ever see that old buzzard flying around if +there wasn't something dead in the woods?" + +"He's a slick one," remarked MacDonald. "But as for Cowperwood, +he can't get away with this sort of thing very long. He's going +too fast. He wants too much." + +Mr. Du Bois smiled quite secretly. It amused him to see how +Cowperwood had brushed MacDonald and his objections aside--dispensed +for the time being with the services of the Inquirer. Du Bois +confidently believed that if the old General had been at home he +would have supported the financier. + +Within eight months after seizing the La Salle Street tunnel and +gobbling four of the principal down-town streets for his loop, +Cowperwood turned his eyes toward the completion of the second +part of the programme--that of taking over the Washington Street +tunnel and the Chicago West Division Company, which was still +drifting along under its old horse-car regime. It was the story +of the North Side company all over again. Stockholders of a certain +type--the average--are extremely nervous, sensitive, fearsome. +They are like that peculiar bivalve, the clam, which at the slightest +sense of untoward pressure withdraws into its shell and ceases all +activity. The city tax department began by instituting proceedings +against the West Division company, compelling them to disgorge +various unpaid street-car taxes which had hitherto been conveniently +neglected. The city highway department was constantly jumping on +them for neglect of street repairs. The city water department, +by some hocus-pocus, made it its business to discover that they +had been stealing water. On the other hand were the smiling +representatives of Cowperwood, Kaifrath, Addison, Videra, and +others, approaching one director or stockholder after another with +glistening accounts of what a splendid day would set in for the +Chicago West Division Company if only it would lease fifty-one per +cent. of its holdings--fifty-one per cent. of twelve hundred and +fifty shares, par value two hundred dollars--for the fascinating +sum of six hundred dollars per share, and thirty per cent. interest +on all stock not assumed. + +Who could resist? Starve and beat a dog on the one hand; wheedle, +pet, and hold meat in front of it on the other, and it can soon +be brought to perform. Cowperwood knew this. His emissaries for +good and evil were tireless. In the end--and it was not long in +coming--the directors and chief stockholders of the Chicago West +Division Company succumbed; and then, ho! the sudden leasing by +the Chicago West Division Company of all its property--to the North +Chicago Street Railway Company, lessee in turn of the Chicago City +Passenger Railway, a line which Cowperwood had organized to take +over the Washington Street tunnel. How had he accomplished it? +The question was on the tip of every financial tongue. Who were +the men or the organization providing the enormous sums necessary +to pay six hundred dollars per share for six hundred and fifty +shares of the twelve hundred and fifty belonging to the old West +Division company, and thirty per cent. per year on all the remainder? +Where was the money coming from to cable all these lines? It was +simple enough if they had only thought. Cowperwood was merely +capitalizing the future. + +Before the newspapers or the public could suitably protest, crowds +of men were at work day and night in the business heart of the +city, their flaring torches and resounding hammers making a fitful +bedlamic world of that region; they were laying the first great +cable loop and repairing the La Salle Street tunnel. It was the +same on the North and West Sides, where concrete conduits were +being laid, new grip and trailer cars built, new car-barns erected, +and large, shining power-houses put up. The city, so long used +to the old bridge delays, the straw-strewn, stoveless horse-cars +on their jumping rails, was agog to see how fine this new service +would be. The La Salle Street tunnel was soon aglow with white +plaster and electric lights. The long streets and avenues of the +North Side were threaded with concrete-lined conduits and heavy +street-rails. The powerhouses were completed and the system was +started, even while the contracts for the changes on the West Side +were being let. + +Schryhart and his associates were amazed at this swiftness of +action, this dizzy phantasmagoria of financial operations. It +looked very much to the conservative traction interests of Chicago +as if this young giant out of the East had it in mind to eat up +the whole city. The Chicago Trust Company, which he, Addison, +McKenty, and others had organized to manipulate the principal +phases of the local bond issues, and of which he was rumored to +be in control, was in a flourishing condition. Apparently he could +now write his check for millions, and yet he was not beholden, so +far as the older and more conservative multimillionaires of Chicago +were concerned, to any one of them. The worst of it was that this +Cowperwood--an upstart, a jail-bird, a stranger whom they had done +their best to suppress financially and ostracize socially, had now +become an attractive, even a sparkling figure in the eyes of the +Chicago public. His views and opinions on almost any topic were +freely quoted; the newspapers, even the most antagonistic, did not +dare to neglect him. Their owners were now fully alive to the +fact that a new financial rival had appeared who was worthy of +their steel. + + + + +Chapter XXVII + + + +A Financier Bewitched + +It was interesting to note how, able though he was, and bound up +with this vast street-railway enterprise which was beginning to +affect several thousand men, his mind could find intense relief +and satisfaction in the presence and actions of Stephanie Platow. +It is not too much to say that in her, perhaps, he found revivified +the spirit and personality of Rita Sohlberg. Rita, however, had +not contemplated disloyalty--it had never occurred to her to be +faithless to Cowperwood so long as he was fond of her any more +than for a long time it had been possible for her, even after all +his philanderings, to be faithless to Sohlberg. Stephanie, on the +other hand, had the strange feeling that affection was not necessarily +identified with physical loyalty, and that she could be fond of +Cowperwood and still deceive him--a fact which was based on her +lack as yet of a true enthusiasm for him. She loved him and she +didn't. Her attitude was not necessarily identified with her +heavy, lizardish animality, though that had something to do with +it; but rather with a vague, kindly generosity which permitted her +to feel that it was hard to break with Gardner Knowles and Lane +Cross after they had been so nice to her. Gardner Knowles had +sung her praises here, there, and everywhere, and was attempting +to spread her fame among the legitimate theatrical enterprises +which came to the city in order that she might be taken up and +made into a significant figure. Lane Cross was wildly fond of her +in an inadequate way which made it hard to break with him, and yet +certain that she would eventually. There was still another man--a +young playwright and poet by the name of Forbes Gurney--tall, fair, +passionate--who had newly arrived on the scene and was courting +her, or, rather, being courted by her at odd moments, for her time +was her own. In her artistically errant way she had refused to +go to school like her sister, and was idling about, developing, as +she phrased it, her artistic possibilities. + +Cowperwood, as was natural, heard much of her stage life. At first +he took all this palaver with a grain of salt, the babbling of an +ardent nature interested in the flighty romance of the studio +world. By degrees, however, he became curious as to the freedom +of her actions, the ease with which she drifted from place to +place--Lane Cross's studio; Bliss Bridge's bachelor rooms, where +he appeared always to be receiving his theatrical friends of the +Garrick Players; Mr. Gardner Knowles's home on the near North Side, +where he was frequently entertaining a party after the theater. +It seemed to Cowperwood, to say the least, that Stephanie was +leading a rather free and inconsequential existence, and yet it +reflected her exactly--the color of her soul. But he began to +doubt and wonder. + +"Where were you, Stephanie, yesterday?" he would ask, when they +met for lunch, or in the evenings early, or when she called at his +new offices on the North Side, as she sometimes did to walk or +drive with him. + +"Oh, yesterday morning I was at Lane Cross's studio trying on some +of his Indian shawls and veils. He has such a lot of those +things--some of the loveliest oranges and blues. You just ought +to see me in them. I wish you might." + +"Alone?" + +"For a while. I thought Ethel Tuckerman and Bliss Bridge would +be there, but they didn't come until later. Lane Cross is such a +dear. He's sort of silly at times, but I like him. His portraits +are so bizarre." + +She went off into a description of his pretentious but insignificant +art. + +Cowperwood marveled, not at Lane Cross's art nor his shawls, but +at this world in which Stephanie moved. He could not quite make +her out. He had never been able to make her explain satisfactorily +that first single relationship with Gardner Knowles, which she +declared had ended so abruptly. Since then he had doubted, as was +his nature; but this girl was so sweet, childish, irreconcilable +with herself, like a wandering breath of air, or a pale-colored +flower, that he scarcely knew what to think. The artistically +inclined are not prone to quarrel with an enticing sheaf of flowers. +She was heavenly to him, coming in, as she did at times when he +was alone, with bland eyes and yielding herself in a kind of summery +ecstasy. She had always something artistic to tell of storms, winds, +dust, clouds, smoke forms, the outline of buildings, the lake, the +stage. She would cuddle in his arms and quote long sections from +"Romeo and Juliet," "Paolo and Francesca," "The Ring and the Book," +Keats's "Eve of St. Agnes." He hated to quarrel with her, because +she was like a wild rose or some art form in nature. Her sketch-book +was always full of new things. Her muff, or the light silk shawl +she wore in summer, sometimes concealed a modeled figure of some +kind which she would produce with a look like that of a doubting +child, and if he wanted it, if he liked it, he could have it. +Cowperwood meditated deeply. He scarcely knew what to think. + +The constant atmosphere of suspicion and doubt in which he was +compelled to remain, came by degrees to distress and anger him. +While she was with him she was clinging enough, but when she was +away she was ardently cheerful and happy. Unlike the station he +had occupied in so many previous affairs, he found himself, after +the first little while, asking her whether she loved him instead +of submitting to the same question from her. + +He thought that with his means, his position, his future possibilities +he had the power to bind almost any woman once drawn to his +personality; but Stephanie was too young and too poetic to be +greatly impaired by wealth and fame, and she was not yet sufficiently +gripped by the lure of him. She loved him in her strange way; but +she was interested also by the latest arrival, Forbes Gurney. +This tall, melancholy youth, with brown eyes and pale-brown hair, +was very poor. He hailed from southern Minnesota, and what between +a penchant for journalism, verse-writing, and some dramatic work, +was somewhat undecided as to his future. His present occupation +was that of an instalment collector for a furniture company, which +set him free, as a rule, at three o'clock in the afternoon. He +was trying, in a mooning way, to identify himself with the Chicago +newspaper world, and was a discovery of Gardner Knowles. + +Stephanie had seen him about the rooms of the Garrick Players. +She had looked at his longish face with its aureole of soft, crinkly +hair, his fine wide mouth, deep-set eyes, and good nose, and had +been touched by an atmosphere of wistfulness, or, let us say, +life-hunger. Gardner Knowles brought a poem of his once, which +he had borrowed from him, and read it to the company, Stephanie, +Ethel Tuckerman, Lane Cross, and Irma Ottley assembled. + +"Listen to this," Knowles had suddenly exclaimed, taking it out +of his pocket. + +It concerned a garden of the moon with the fragrance of pale +blossoms, a mystic pool, some ancient figures of joy, a quavered +Lucidian tune. + +"With eerie flute and rhythmic thrum +Of muted strings and beaten drum." + +Stephanie Platow had sat silent, caught by a quality that was akin +to her own. She asked to see it, and read it in silence. + +"I think it's charming," she said. + +Thereafter she hovered in the vicinity of Forbes Gurney. Why, she +could scarcely say. It was not coquetry. She just drew near, +talked to him of stage work and her plays and her ambitions. She +sketched him as she had Cowperwood and others, and one day Cowperwood +found three studies of Forbes Gurney in her note-book idyllicly +done, a note of romantic feeling about them. + +"Who is this?" he asked. + +"Oh, he's a young poet who comes up to the Players--Forbes Gurney. +He's so charming; he's so pale and dreamy." + +Cowperwood contemplated the sketches curiously. His eyes clouded. + +"Another one of Stephanie's adherents," he commented, teasingly. +"It's a long procession I've joined. Gardner Knowles, Lane Cross, +Bliss Bridge, Forbes Gurney." + +Stephanie merely pouted moodily. + +"How you talk! Bliss Bridge, Gardner Knowles! I admit I like them +all, but that's all I do do. They're just sweet and dear. You'd +like Lane Cross yourself; he's such a foolish old Polly. As for +Forbes Gurney, he just drifts up there once in a while as one of +the crowd. I scarcely know him." + +"Exactly," said Cowperwood, dolefully; "but you sketch him." +For some reason Cowperwood did not believe this. Back in his brain +he did not believe Stephanie at all, he did not trust her. Yet +he was intensely fond of her--the more so, perhaps, because of +this. + +"Tell me truly, Stephanie," he said to her one day, urgently, and +yet very diplomatically. "I don't care at all, so far as your +past is concerned. You and I are close enough to reach a perfect +understanding. But you didn't tell me the whole truth about you +and Knowles, did you? Tell me truly now. I sha'n't mind. I can +understand well enough how it could have happened. It doesn't +make the least bit of difference to me, really. + +Stephanie was off her guard for once, in no truly fencing mood. +She was troubled at times about her various relations, anxious to +put herself straight with Cowperwood or with any one whom she truly +liked. Compared to Cowperwood and his affairs, Cross and Knowles +were trivial, and yet Knowles was interesting to her. Compared +to Cowperwood, Forbes Gurney was a stripling beggar, and yet Gurney +had what Cowperwood did not have--a sad, poetic lure. He awakened +her sympathies. He was such a lonely boy. Cowperwood was so +strong, brilliant, magnetic. + +Perhaps it was with some idea of clearing up her moral status +generally that she finally said: "Well, I didn't tell you the exact +truth about it, either. I was a little ashamed to." + +At the close of her confession, which involved only Knowles, and +was incomplete at that, Cowperwood burned with a kind of angry +resentment. Why trifle with a lying prostitute? That she was an +inconsequential free lover at twenty-one was quite plain. And yet +there was something so strangely large about the girl, so magnetic, +and she was so beautiful after her kind, that he could not think +of giving her up. She reminded him of himself. + +"Well, Stephanie," he said, trampling under foot an impulse to +insult or rebuke and dismiss her, "you are strange. Why didn't +you tell me this before? I have asked and asked. Do you really +mean to say that you care for me at all?" + +"How can you ask that?" she demanded, reproachfully, feeling that +she had been rather foolish in confessing. Perhaps she would lose +him now, and she did not want to do that. Because his eyes blazed +with a jealous hardness she burst into tears. "Oh, I wish I had +never told you! There is nothing to tell, anyhow. I never wanted +to." + +Cowperwood was nonplussed. He knew human nature pretty well, and +woman nature; his common sense told him that this girl was not to +be trusted, and yet he was drawn to her. Perhaps she was not +lying, and these tears were real. + +"And you positively assure me that this was all--that there wasn't +any one else before, and no one since?" + +Stephanie dried her eyes. They were in his private rooms in +Randolph Street, the bachelor rooms he had fitted for himself as +a changing place for various affairs. + +"I don't believe you care for me at all," she observed, dolefully, +reproachfully. "I don't believe you understand me. I don't think +you believe me. When I tell you how things are you don't understand. +I don't lie. I can't. If you are so doubting now, perhaps you +had better not see me any more. I want to be frank with you, but +if you won't let me--" + +She paused heavily, gloomily, very sorrowfully, and Cowperwood +surveyed her with a kind of yearning. What an unreasoning pull +she had for him! He did not believe her, and yet he could not let +her go. + +"Oh, I don't know what to think," he commented, morosely. "I +certainly don't want to quarrel with you, Stephanie, for telling +me the truth. Please don't deceive me. You are a remarkable girl. +I can do so much for you if you will let me. You ought to see +that." + +"But I'm not deceiving you," she repeated, wearily. "I should +think you could see." + +"I believe you," he went on, trying to deceive himself against his +better judgment. "But you lead such a free, unconventional life." + +"Ah," thought Stephanie, "perhaps I talk too much." + +"I am very fond of you. You appeal to me so much. "I love you, +really. Don't deceive me. Don't run with all these silly simpletons. +They are really not worthy of you. I shall be able to get a +divorce one of these days, and then I would be glad to marry you. + +"But I'm not running with them in the sense that you think. They're +not anything to me beyond mere entertainment. Oh, I like them, +of course. Lane Cross is a dear in his way, and so is Gardner +Knowles. They have all been nice to me. + +Cowperwood's gorge rose at her calling Lane Cross dear. It incensed +him, and yet he held his peace. + +"Do give me your word that there will never be anything between +you and any of these men so long as you are friendly with me?" he +almost pleaded--a strange role for him. "I don't care to share +you with any one else. I won't. I don't mind what you have done +in the past, but I don't want you to be unfaithful in the future." + +"What a question! Of course I won't. But if you don't believe me +--oh, dear--" + +Stephanie sighed painfully, and Cowperwood's face clouded with +angry though well-concealed suspicion and jealousy. + +"Well, I'll tell you, Stephanie, I believe you now. I'm going to +take your word. But if you do deceive me, and I should find it +out, I will quit you the same day. I do not care to share you +with any one else. What I can't understand, if you care for me, +is how you can take so much interest in all these affairs? It +certainly isn't devotion to your art that's impelling you, is it?" + +"Oh, are you going to go on quarreling with me?" asked Stephanie, +naively. "Won't you believe me when I say that I love you? +Perhaps--" But here her histrionic ability came to her aid, and +she sobbed violently. + +Cowperwood took her in his arms. "Never mind," he soothed. "I +do believe you. I do think you care for me. Only I wish you +weren't such a butterfly temperament, Stephanie." + +So this particular lesion for the time being was healed. + + + + +Chapter XXVIII + + + +The Exposure of Stephanie + +At the same time the thought of readjusting her relations so that +they would avoid disloyalty to Cowperwood was never further from +Stephanie's mind. Let no one quarrel with Stephanie Platow. She +was an unstable chemical compound, artistic to her finger-tips, +not understood or properly guarded by her family. Her interest +in Cowperwood, his force and ability, was intense. So was her +interest in Forbes Gurney--the atmosphere of poetry that enveloped +him. She studied him curiously on the various occasions when they +met, and, finding him bashful and recessive, set out to lure him. +She felt that he was lonely and depressed and poor, and her womanly +capacity for sympathy naturally bade her be tender. + +Her end was easily achieved. One night, when they were all out in +Bliss Bridge's single-sticker--a fast-sailing saucer--Stephanie +and Forbes Gurney sat forward of the mast looking at the silver +moon track which was directly ahead. The rest were in the cockpit +"cutting up"--laughing and singing. It was very plain to all +that Stephanie was becoming interested in Forbes Gurney; and since +he was charming and she wilful, nothing was done to interfere with +them, except to throw an occasional jest their way. Gurney, new +to love and romance, scarcely knew how to take his good fortune, +how to begin. He told Stephanie of his home life in the wheat-fields +of the Northwest, how his family had moved from Ohio when he was +three, and how difficult were the labors he had always undergone. +He had stopped in his plowing many a day to stand under a tree +and write a poem--such as it was--or to watch the birds or to wish +he could go to college or to Chicago. She looked at him with +dreamy eyes, her dark skin turned a copper bronze in the moonlight, +her black hair irradiated with a strange, luminous grayish blue. +Forbes Gurney, alive to beauty in all its forms, ventured finally +to touch her hand--she of Knowles, Cross, and Cowperwood--and she +thrilled from head to toe. This boy was so sweet. His curly brown +hair gave him a kind of Greek innocence and aspect. She did not +move, but waited, hoping he would do more. + +"I wish I might talk to you as I feel," he finally said, hoarsely, +a catch in his throat. + +She laid one hand on his. + +"You dear!" she said. + +He realized now that he might. A great ecstasy fell upon him. +He smoothed her hand, then slipped his arm about her waist, then +ventured to kiss the dark cheek turned dreamily from him. Artfully +her head sunk to his shoulder, and he murmured wild nothings--how +divine she was, how artistic, how wonderful! With her view of +things, it could only end one way. She manoeuvered him into calling +on her at her home, into studying her books and plays on the +top-floor sitting-room, into hearing her sing. Once fully in his +arms, the rest was easy by suggestion. He learned she was no longer +innocent, and then-- In the mean time Cowperwood mingled his +speculations concerning large power-houses, immense reciprocating +engines, the problem of a wage scale for his now two thousand +employees, some of whom were threatening to strike, the problem +of securing, bonding, and equipping the La Salle Street tunnel and +a down-town loop in La Salle, Munroe, Dearborn, and Randolph +streets, with mental inquiries and pictures as to what possibly +Stephanie Platow might be doing. He could only make appointments +with her from time to time. He did not fail to note that, after +he began to make use of information she let drop as to her whereabouts +from day to day and her free companionship, he heard less of Gardner +Knowles, Lane Cross, and Forbes Gurney, and more of Georgia +Timberlake and Ethel Tuckerman. Why this sudden reticence? On one +occasion she did say of Forbes Gurney "that he was having such a +hard time, and that his clothes weren't as nice as they should be, +poor dear!" Stephanie herself, owing to gifts made to her by +Cowperwood, was resplendent these days. She took just enough to +complete her wardrobe according to her taste. + +"Why not send him to me?" Cowperwood asked. "I might find something +to do for him." He would have been perfectly willing to put him +in some position where he could keep track of his time. However, +Mr. Gurney never sought him for a position, and Stephanie ceased +to speak of his poverty. A gift of two hundred dollars, which +Cowperwood made her in June, was followed by an accidental meeting +with her and Gurney in Washington Street. Mr. Gurney, pale and +pleasant, was very well dressed indeed. He wore a pin which +Cowperwood knew had once belonged to Stephanie. She was in no way +confused. Finally Stephanie let it out that Lane Cross, who had +gone to New Hampshire for the summer, had left his studio in her +charge. Cowperwood decided to have this studio watched. + +There was in Cowperwood's employ at this time a young newspaper +man, an ambitious spark aged twenty-six, by the name of Francis +Kennedy. He had written a very intelligent article for the Sunday +Inquirer, describing Cowperwood and his plans, and pointing out +what a remarkable man he was. This pleased Cowperwood. When +Kennedy called one day, announcing smartly that he was anxious to +get out of reportorial work, and inquiring whether be couldn't find +something to do in the street-railway world, Cowperwood saw in +him a possibly useful tool. + +"I'll try you out as secretary for a while," he said, pleasantly. +"There are a few special things I want done. If you succeed in +those, I may find something else for you later." + +Kennedy had been working for him only a little while when he said +to him one day: "Francis, did you ever hear of a young man by the +name of Forbes Gurney in the newspaper world?" + +They were in Cowperwood's private office. + +"No, sir," replied Francis, briskly. + +"You have heard of an organization called the Garrick Players, +haven't you?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Well, Francis, do you suppose you could undertake a little piece +of detective work for me, and handle it intelligently and quietly?" + +"I think so," said Francis, who was the pink of perfection this +morning in a brown suit, garnet tie, and sard sleeve-links. His +shoes were immaculately polished, and his young, healthy face +glistened. + +"I'll tell you what I want you to do. There is a young actress, +or amateur actress, by the name of Stephanie Platow, who frequents +the studio of an artist named Cross in the New Arts Building. She +may even occupy it in his absence--I don't know. I want you to +find out for me what the relations of Mr. Gurney and this woman +are. I have certain business reasons for wanting to know." + +Young Kennedy was all attention. + +"You couldn't tell me where I could find out anything about this +Mr. Gurney to begin with, could you?" he asked. + +"I think he is a friend of a critic here by the name of Gardner +Knowles. You might ask him. I need not say that you must never +mention me. + +"Oh, I understand that thoroughly, Mr. Cowperwood." Young Kennedy +departed, meditating. How was he to do this? With true journalistic +skill he first sought other newspaper men, from whom he learned--a +bit from one and a scrap from another--of the character of the +Garrick Players, and of the women who belonged to it. He pretended +to be writing a one-act play, which he hoped to have produced. + +He then visited Lane Cross's studio, posing as a newspaper +interviewer. Mr. Cross was out of town, so the elevator man said. +His studio was closed. + +Mr. Kennedy meditated on this fact for a moment. + +"Does any one use his studio during the summer months?" he asked. + +"I believe there is a young woman who comes here--yes." + +"You don't happen to know who it is?" + +"Yes, I do. Her name is Platow. What do you want to know for?" + +"Looky here," exclaimed Kennedy, surveying the rather shabby +attendant with a cordial and persuasive eye, "do you want to make +some money--five or ten dollars, and without any trouble to +you?" + +The elevator man, whose wages were exactly eight dollars a week, +pricked up his ears. + +"I want to know who comes here with this Miss Platow, when they +come--all about it. I'll make it fifteen dollars if I find out +what I want, and I'll give you five right now." + +The elevator factotum had just sixty-five cents in his pocket at +the time. He looked at Kennedy with some uncertainty and much +desire. + +"Well, what can I do?" he repeated. "I'm not here after six. The +janitor runs this elevator from six to twelve." + +"There isn't a room vacant anywhere near this one, is there?" +Kennedy asked, speculatively. + +The factotum thought. "Yes, there is. One just across the hall." + +"What time does she come here as a rule?" + +"I don't know anything about nights. In the day she sometimes +comes mornings, sometimes in the afternoon." + +"Anybody with her?" + +"Sometimes a man, sometimes a girl or two. I haven't really paid +much attention to her, to tell you the truth." + +Kennedy walked away whistling. + +From this day on Mr. Kennedy became a watcher over this very +unconventional atmosphere. He was in and out, principally observing +the comings and goings of Mr. Gurney. He found what he naturally +suspected, that Mr. Gurney and Stephanie spent hours here at +peculiar times--after a company of friends had jollified, for +instance, and all had left, including Gurney, when the latter would +quietly return, with Stephanie sometimes, if she had left with the +others, alone if she had remained behind. The visits were of +varying duration, and Kennedy, to be absolutely accurate, kept +days, dates, the duration of the hours, which he left noted in a +sealed envelope for Cowperwood in the morning. Cowperwood was +enraged, but so great was his interest in Stephanie that he was +not prepared to act. He wanted to see to what extent her duplicity +would go. + +The novelty of this atmosphere and its effect on him was astonishing. +Although his mind was vigorously employed during the day, +nevertheless his thoughts kept returning constantly. Where was +she? What was she doing? The bland way in which she could lie +reminded him of himself. To think that she should prefer any one +else to him, especially at this time when he was shining as a great +constructive factor in the city, was too much. It smacked of age, +his ultimate displacement by youth. It cut and hurt. + +One morning, after a peculiarly exasperating night of thought +concerning her, he said to young Kennedy: "I have a suggestion for +you. I wish you would get this elevator man you are working with +down there to get you a duplicate key to this studio, and see if +there is a bolt on the inside. Let me know when you do. Bring +me the key. The next time she is there of an evening with Mr. +Gurney step out and telephone me." + +The climax came one night several weeks after this discouraging +investigation began. There was a heavy yellow moon in the sky, +and a warm, sweet summer wind was blowing. Stephanie had called +on Cowperwood at his office about four to say that instead of +staying down-town with him, as they had casually planned, she was +going to her home on the West Side to attend a garden-party of +some kind at Georgia Timberlake's. Cowperwood looked at her +with--for him--a morbid eye. He was all cheer, geniality, pleasant +badinage; but he was thinking all the while what a shameless enigma +she was, how well she played her part, what a fool she must take +him to be. He gave her youth, her passion, her attractiveness, +her natural promiscuity of soul due credit; but he could not forgive +her for not loving him perfectly, as had so many others. She had +on a summery black-and-white frock and a fetching brown Leghorn +hat, which, with a rich-red poppy ornamenting a flare over her +left ear and a peculiar ruching of white-and-black silk about the +crown, made her seem strangely young, debonair, a study in Hebraic +and American origins. + +"Going to have a nice time, are you?" he asked, genially, politically, +eying her in his enigmatic and inscrutable way. "Going to shine +among that charming company you keep! I suppose all the standbys +will be there--Bliss Bridge, Mr. Knowles, Mr. Cross--dancing +attendance on you?" + +He failed to mention Mr. Gurney. + +Stephanie nodded cheerfully. She seemed in an innocent outing mood. + +Cowperwood smiled, thinking how one of these days--very shortly, +perhaps--he was certain to take a signal revenge. He would catch +her in a lie, in a compromising position somewhere--in this studio, +perhaps--and dismiss her with contempt. In an elder day, if they +had lived in Turkey, he would have had her strangled, sewn in a +sack, and thrown into the Bosporus. As it was, he could only +dismiss her. He smiled and smiled, smoothing her hand. "Have a +good time," he called, as she left. Later, at his own home--it +was nearly midnight--Mr. Kennedy called him up. + +"Mr. Cowperwood?" + +"Yes." + +"You know the studio in the New Arts Building?" + +"Yes." + +"It is occupied now." + +Cowperwood called a servant to bring him his runabout. He had had +a down-town locksmith make a round keystem with a bored clutch at +the end of it--a hollow which would fit over the end of such a key +as he had to the studio and turn it easily from the outside. He +felt in his pocket for it, jumped in his runabout, and hurried +away. When he reached the New Arts Building he found Kennedy in +the hall and dismissed him. "Thanks," he observed, brusquely. +"I will take care of this." + +He hurried up the stairs, avoiding the elevator, to the vacant +room opposite, and thence reconnoitered the studio door. It was +as Kennedy had reported. Stephanie was there, and with Gurney. +The pale poet had been brought there to furnish her an evening of +delight. Because of the stillness of the building at this hour +he could hear their muffled voices speaking alternately, and once +Stephanie singing the refrain of a song. He was angry and yet +grateful that she had, in her genial way, taken the trouble to +call and assure him that she was going to a summer lawn-party and +dance. He smiled grimly, sarcastically, as he thought of her +surprise. Softly he extracted the clutch-key and inserted it, +covering the end of the key on the inside and turning it. It gave +solidly without sound. He next tried the knob and turned it, +feeling the door spring slightly as he did so. Then inaudibly, +because of a gurgled laugh with which he was thoroughly familiar, +he opened it and stepped in. + +At his rough, firm cough they sprang up--Gurney to a hiding position +behind a curtain, Stephanie to one of concealment behind draperies +on the couch. She could not speak, and could scarcely believe +that her eyes did not deceive her. Gurney, masculine and defiant, +but by no means well composed, demanded: "Who are you? What do you +want here?" Cowperwood replied very simply and smilingly: "Not +very much. Perhaps Miss Platow there will tell you." He nodded +in her direction. + +Stephanie, fixed by his cold, examining eye, shrank nervously, +ignoring Gurney entirely. The latter perceived on the instant that +he had a previous liaison to deal with--an angry and outraged +lover--and he was not prepared to act either wisely or well. + +"Mr. Gurney," said Cowperwood, complacently, after staring at +Stephanie grimly and scorching her with his scorn, "I have no +concern with you, and do not propose to do anything to disturb you +or Miss Platow after a very few moments. I am not here without +reason. This young woman has been steadily deceiving me. She has +lied to me frequently, and pretended an innocence which I did not +believe. To-night she told me she was to be at a lawn-party on +the West Side. She has been my mistress for months. I have given +her money, jewelry, whatever she wanted. Those jade ear-rings, +by the way, are one of my gifts." He nodded cheerfully in Stephanie's +direction. "I have come here simply to prove to her that she +cannot lie to me any more. Heretofore, every time I have accused +her of things like this she has cried and lied. I do not know how +much you know of her, or how fond you are of her. I merely wish +her, not you, to know"--and he turned and stared at Stephanie--"that +the day of her lying to me is over. + +During this very peculiar harangue Stephanie, who, nervous, fearful, +fixed, and yet beautiful, remained curled up in the corner of the +suggestive oriental divan, had been gazing at Cowperwood in a way +which plainly attested, trifle as she might with others, that she +was nevertheless fond of him--intensely so. His strong, solid +figure, confronting her so ruthlessly, gripped her imagination, of +which she had a world. She had managed to conceal her body in part, +but her brown arms and shoulders, her bosom, trim knees, and feet +were exposed in part. Her black hair and naive face were now heavy, +distressed, sad. She was frightened really, for Cowperwood at +bottom had always overawed her--a strange, terrible, fascinating +man. Now she sat and looked, seeking still to lure him by the +pathetic cast of her face and soul, while Cowperwood, scornful of +her, and almost openly contemptuous of her lover, and his possible +opposition, merely stood smiling before them. It came over her +very swiftly now just what it was she was losing--a grim, wonderful +man. Beside him Gurney, the pale poet, was rather thin--a mere +breath of romance. She wanted to say something, to make a plea; +but it was so plain Cowperwood would have none of it, and, besides, +here was Gurney. Her throat clogged, her eyes filled, even here, +and a mystical bog-fire state of emotion succeeded the primary one +of opposition. Cowperwood knew the look well. It gave him the +only sense of triumph he had. + +"Stephanie," he remarked, "I have just one word to say to you now. +We will not meet any more, of course. You are a good actress. +Stick to your profession. You may shine in it if you do not merge +it too completely with your loves. As for being a free lover, it +isn't incompatible with what you are, perhaps, but it isn't socially +advisable for you. Good night." + +He turned and walked quickly out. + +"Oh, Frank," called Stephanie, in a strange, magnetized, despairing +way, even in the face of her astonished lover. Gurney stared with +his mouth open. + +Cowperwood paid no heed. Out he went through the dark hall and +down the stairs. For once the lure of a beautiful, enigmatic, +immoral, and promiscuous woman--poison flower though she was--was +haunting him. "D-- her!" he exclaimed. "D-- the little beast, +anyhow! The ----! The ----!" He used terms so hard, so vile, so sad, +all because he knew for once what it was to love and lose--to want +ardently in his way and not to have--now or ever after. He was +determined that his path and that of Stephanie Platow should never +be allowed to cross again. + + + + +Chapter XXIX + + + +A Family Quarrel + +It chanced that shortly before this liaison was broken off, some +troubling information was quite innocently conveyed to Aileen by +Stephanie Platow's own mother. One day Mrs. Platow, in calling +on Mrs. Cowperwood, commented on the fact that Stephanie was +gradually improving in her art, that the Garrick Players had +experienced a great deal of trouble, and that Stephanie was shortly +to appear in a new role--something Chinese. + +"That was such a charming set of jade you gave her," she volunteered, +genially. "I only saw it the other day for the first time. She +never told me about it before. She prizes it so very highly, that +I feel as though I ought to thank you myself." + +Aileen opened her eyes. "Jade!" she observed, curiously. "Why, +I don't remember." Recalling Cowperwood's proclivities on the +instant, she was suspicious, distraught. Her face showed her +perplexity. + +"Why, yes," replied Mrs. Platow, Aileen's show of surprise troubling +her. "The ear-rings and necklet, you know. She said you gave +them to her." + +"To be sure," answered Aileen, catching herself as by a hair. "I +do recall it now. But it was Frank who really gave them. I hope +she likes them." + +She smiled sweetly. + +"She thinks they're beautiful, and they do become her," continued +Mrs. Platow, pleasantly, understanding it all, as she fancied. +The truth was that Stephanie, having forgotten, had left her make-up +box open one day at home, and her mother, rummaging in her room +for something, had discovered them and genially confronted her +with them, for she knew the value of jade. Nonplussed for the +moment, Stephanie had lost her mental, though not her outward, +composure and referred them back casually to an evening at the +Cowperwood home when Aileen had been present and the gauds had +been genially forced upon her. + +Unfortunately for Aileen, the matter was not to be allowed to rest +just so, for going one afternoon to a reception given by Rhees +Crier, a young sculptor of social proclivities, who had been +introduced to her by Taylor Lord, she was given a taste of what +it means to be a neglected wife from a public point of view. As +she entered on this occasion she happened to overhear two women +talking in a corner behind a screen erected to conceal wraps. +"Oh, here comes Mrs. Cowperwood," said one. "She's the street-railway +magnate's wife. Last winter and spring he was running with that +Platow girl--of the Garrick Players, you know." + +The other nodded, studying Aileen's splendiferous green--velvet +gown with envy. + +"I wonder if she's faithful to him?" she queried, while Aileen +strained to hear. "She looks daring enough." + +Aileen managed to catch a glimpse of her observers later, when +they were not looking, and her face showed her mingled resentment +and feeling; but it did no good. The wretched gossipers had wounded +her in the keenest way. She was hurt, angry, nonplussed. To think +that Cowperwood by his variability should expose her to such gossip +as this! + +One day not so long after her conversation with Mrs. Platow, Aileen +happened to be standing outside the door of her own boudoir, the +landing of which commanded the lower hall, and there overheard two +of her servants discussing the Cowperwood menage in particular and +Chicago life in general. One was a tall, angular girl of perhaps +twenty-seven or eight, a chambermaid, the other a short, stout +woman of forty who held the position of assistant housekeeper. +They were pretending to dust, though gossip conducted in a whisper +was the matter for which they were foregathered. The tall girl +had recently been employed in the family of Aymar Cochrane, the +former president of the Chicago West Division Railway, and now a +director of the new West Chicago Street Railway Company. + +"And I was that surprised," Aileen heard this girl saying, "to +think I should be coming here. I cud scarcely believe me ears +when they told me. Why, Miss Florence was runnin' out to meet him +two and three times in the week. The wonder to me was that her +mother never guessed." + +Och," replied the other, "he's the very divil and all when it comes +to the wimmin." (Aileen did not see the upward lift of the hand +that accompanied this). "There was a little girl that used to +come here. Her father lives up the street here. Haguenin is his +name. He owns that morning paper, the Press, and has a fine house +up the street here a little way. Well, I haven't seen her very +often of late, but more than once I saw him kissing her in this +very room. Sure his wife knows all about it. Depend on it. She +had an awful fight with some woman here onct, so I hear, some woman +that he was runnin' with and bringin' here to the house. I hear +it's somethin' terrible the way she beat her up--screamin' and +carryin' on. Oh, they're the divil, these men, when it comes to +the wimmin." + +A slight rustling sound from somewhere sent the two gossipers on +their several ways, but Aileen had heard enough to understand. +What was she to do? How was she to learn more of these new women, +of whom she had never heard at all? She at once suspected Florence +Cochrane, for she knew that this servant had worked in the Cochrane +family. And then Cecily Haguenin, the daughter of the editor with +whom they were on the friendliest terms! Cowperwood kissing her! +Was there no end to his liaisons--his infidelity? + +She returned, fretting and grieving, to her room, where she meditated +and meditated, wondering whether she should leave him, wondering +whether she should reproach him openly, wondering whether she +should employ more detectives. What good would it do? She had +employed detectives once. Had it prevented the Stephanie Platow +incident? Not at all. Would it prevent other liaisons in the +future? Very likely not. Obviously her home life with Cowperwood +was coming to a complete and disastrous end. Things could not go +on in this way. She had done wrong, possibly, in taking him away +from Mrs. Cowperwood number one, though she could scarcely believe +that, for Mrs. Lillian Cowperwood was so unsuited to him--but this +repayment! If she had been at all superstitious or religious, and +had known her Bible, which she didn't, she might have quoted to +herself that very fatalistic statement of the New Testament, "With +what measure ye mete it shall be measured unto you again." + +The truth was that Cowperwood's continued propensity to rove at +liberty among the fair sex could not in the long run fail of some +results of an unsatisfactory character. Coincident with the +disappearance of Stephanie Platow, he launched upon a variety of +episodes, the charming daughter of so worthy a man as Editor +Haguenin, his sincerest and most sympathetic journalistic supporter; +and the daughter of Aymar Cochrane, falling victims, among others, +to what many would have called his wiles. As a matter of fact, +in most cases he was as much sinned against as sinning, since the +provocation was as much offered as given. + +The manner in which he came to get in with Cecily Haguenin was +simple enough. Being an old friend of the family, and a frequent +visitor at her father's house, he found this particular daughter +of desire an easy victim. She was a vigorous blonde creature of +twenty at this time, very full and plump, with large, violet eyes, +and with considerable alertness of mind--a sort of doll girl with +whom Cowperwood found it pleasant to amuse himself. A playful +gamboling relationship had existed between them when she was a +mere child attending school, and had continued through her college +years whenever she happened to be at home on a vacation. In these +very latest days when Cowperwood on occasion sat in the Haguenin +library consulting with the journalist-publisher concerning certain +moves which he wished to have put right before the public he saw +considerably more of Cecily. One night, when her father had gone +out to look up the previous action of the city council in connection +with some matter of franchises, a series of more or less sympathetic +and understanding glances suddenly culminated in Cecily's playfully +waving a new novel, which she happened to have in her hand, in +Cowperwood's face; and he, in reply, laid hold caressingly of her +arms. + +"You can't stop me so easily," she observed, banteringly. + +"Oh yes, I can," he replied. + +A slight struggle ensued, in which he, with her semiwilful connivance, +managed to manoeuver her into his arms, her head backward against +his shoulder. + +"Well," she said, looking up at him with a semi-nervous, +semi-provocative glance, "now what? You'll just have to let me go." + +"Not very soon, though." + +"Oh yes, you will. My father will be here in a moment." + +"Well, not until then, anyhow. You're getting to be the sweetest +girl." + +She did not resist, but remained gazing half nervously, half +dreamily at him, whereupon he smoothed her cheek, and then kissed +her. Her father's returning step put an end to this; but from +this point on ascent or descent to a perfect understanding was +easily made. + +In the matter of Florence Cochrane, the daughter of Aymar Cochrane, +the president of the Chicago West Division Company--a second affair +of the period--the approach was only slightly different, the result +the same. This girl, to furnish only a brief impression, was a +blonde of a different type from Cecily--delicate, picturesque, +dreamy. She was mildly intellectual at this time, engaged in +reading Marlowe and Jonson; and Cowperwood, busy in the matter of +the West Chicago Street Railway, and conferring with her father, +was conceived by her as a great personage of the Elizabethan order. +In a tentative way she was in revolt against an apple-pie order +of existence which was being forced upon her. Cowperwood recognized +the mood, trifled with her spiritedly, looked into her eyes, and +found the response he wanted. Neither old Aymar Cochrane nor his +impeccably respectable wife ever discovered. + +Subsequently Aileen, reflecting upon these latest developments, +was from one point of view actually pleased or eased. There is +always safety in numbers, and she felt that if Cowperwood were +going to go on like this it would not be possible for him in the +long run to take a definite interest in any one; and so, all things +considered, and other things being equal, he would probably just +as leave remain married to her as not. + +But what a comment, she could not help reflecting, on her own +charms! What an end to an ideal union that had seemed destined to +last all their days! She, Aileen Butler, who in her youth had +deemed herself the peer of any girl in charm, force, beauty, to +be shoved aside thus early in her life--she was only forty--by the +younger generation. And such silly snips as they were--Stephanie +Platow! and Cecily Haguenin! and Florence Cochrane, in all +likelihood another pasty-faced beginner! And here she was--vigorous, +resplendent, smooth of face and body, her forehead, chin, neck, +eyes without a wrinkle, her hair a rich golden reddish glow, her +step springing, her weight no more than one hundred and fifty +pounds for her very normal height, with all the advantages of a +complete toilet cabinet, jewels, clothing, taste, and skill in +material selection--being elbowed out by these upstarts. It was +almost unbelievable. It was so unfair. Life was so cruel, +Cowperwood so temperamentally unbalanced. Dear God! to think that +this should be true! Why should he not love her? She studied her +beauty in the mirror from time to time, and raged and raged. Why +was her body not sufficient for him? Why should he deem any one +more beautiful? Why should he not be true to his reiterated +protestations that he cared for her? Other men were true to other +women. Her father had been faithful to her mother. At the thought +of her own father and his opinion of her conduct she winced, but +it did not change her point of view as to her present rights. See +her hair! See her eyes! See her smooth, resplendent arms! Why +should Cowperwood not love her? Why, indeed? + +One night, shortly afterward, she was sitting in her boudoir +reading, waiting for him to come home, when the telephone-bell +sounded and he informed her that he was compelled to remain at the +office late. Afterward he said he might be obliged to run on to +Pittsburg for thirty-six hours or thereabouts; but he would surely +be back on the third day, counting the present as one. Aileen was +chagrined. Her voice showed it. They had been scheduled to go +to dinner with the Hoecksemas, and afterward to the theater. +Cowperwood suggested that she should go alone, but Aileen declined +rather sharply; she hung up the receiver without even the pretense +of a good-by. And then at ten o'clock he telephoned again, saying +that he had changed his mind, and that if she were interested to +go anywhere--a later supper, or the like--she should dress, otherwise +he would come home expecting to remain. + +Aileen immediately concluded that some scheme he had had to amuse +himself had fallen through. Having spoiled her evening, he was +coming home to make as much hay as possible out of this bit of +sunshine. This infuriated her. The whole business of uncertainty +in the matter of his affections was telling on her nerves. A storm +was in order, and it had come. He came bustling in a little later, +slipped his arms around her as she came forward and kissed her on +the mouth. He smoothed her arms in a make-believe and yet tender +way, and patted her shoulders. Seeing her frown, he inquired, +"What's troubling Babykins?" + +"Oh, nothing more than usual," replied Aileen, irritably. "Let's +not talk about that. Have you had your dinner?" + +"Yes, we had it brought in." He was referring to McKenty, Addison, +and himself, and the statement was true. Being in an honest +position for once, he felt called upon to justify himself a little. +"It couldn't be avoided to-night. I'm sorry that this business +takes up so much of my time, but I'll get out of it some day soon. +Things are bound to ease up." + +Aileen withdrew from his embrace and went to her dressing-table. +A glance showed her that her hair was slightly awry, and she +smoothed it into place. She looked at her chin, and then went +back to her book--rather sulkily, he thought. + +"Now, Aileen, what's the trouble?" he inquired. "Aren't you glad +to have me up here? I know you have had a pretty rough road of it +of late, but aren't you willing to let bygones be bygones and trust +to the future a little?" + +"The future! The future! Don't talk to me about the future. It's +little enough it holds in store for me," she replied. + +Cowperwood saw that she was verging on an emotional storm, but he +trusted to his powers of persuasion, and her basic affection for +him, to soothe and quell her. + +"I wish you wouldn't act this way, pet," he went on. "You know I +have always cared for you. You know I always shall. I'll admit +that there are a lot of little things which interfere with my being +at home as much as I would like at present; but that doesn't alter +the fact that my feeling is the same. I should think you could +see that." + +"Feeling! Feeling!" taunted Aileen, suddenly. "Yes, I know how +much feeling you have. You have feeling enough to give other women +sets of jade and jewels, and to run around with every silly little +snip you meet. You needn't come home here at ten o'clock, when +you can't go anywhere else, and talk about feeling for me. I know +how much feeling you have. Pshaw!" + +She flung herself irritably back in her chair and opened her book. +Cowperwood gazed at her solemnly, for this thrust in regard to +Stephanie was a revelation. This woman business could grow +peculiarly exasperating at times. + +"What do you mean, anyhow?" he observed, cautiously and with much +seeming candor. "I haven't given any jade or jewels to any one, +nor have I been running around with any 'little snips,' as you +call them. I don't know what you are talking about, Aileen." + +"Oh, Frank," commented Aileen, wearily and incredulously, "you lie +so! Why do you stand there and lie? I'm so tired of it; I'm so +sick of it all. How should the servants know of so many things +to talk of here if they weren't true? I didn't invite Mrs. Platow +to come and ask me why you had given her daughter a set of jade. +I know why you lie; you want to hush me up and keep quiet. You're +afraid I'll go to Mr. Haguenin or Mr. Cochrane or Mr. Platow, or +to all three. Well, you can rest your soul on that score. I +won't. I'm sick of you and your lies. Stephanie Platow--the thin +stick! Cecily Haguenin--the little piece of gum! And Florence +Cochrane--she looks like a dead fish!" (Aileen had a genius for +characterization at times.) "If it just weren't for the way I +acted toward my family in Philadelphia, and the talk it would +create, and the injury it would do you financially, I'd act +to-morrow. I'd leave you--that's what I'd do. And to think that +I should ever have believed that you really loved me, or could +care for any woman permanently. Bosh! But I don't care. Go on! +Only I'll tell you one thing. You needn't think I'm going to go +on enduring all this as I have in the past. I'm not. You're not +going to deceive me always. I'm not going to stand it. I'm not +so old yet. There are plenty of men who will be glad to pay me +attention if you won't. I told you once that I wouldn't be faithful +to you if you weren't to me, and I won't be. I'll show you. I'll +go with other men. I will! I will! I swear it." + +"Aileen," he asked, softly, pleadingly, realizing the futility of +additional lies under such circumstances, "won't you forgive me +this time? Bear with me for the present. I scarcely understand +myself at times. I am not like other men. You and I have run +together a long time now. Why not wait awhile? Give me a chance! +See if I do not change. I may." + +"Oh yes, wait! Change. You may change. Haven't I waited? Haven't +I walked the floor night after night! when you haven't been here? +Bear with you--yes, yes! Who's to bear with me when my heart is +breaking? Oh, God!" she suddenly added, with passionate vigor, +"I'm miserable! I'm miserable! My heart aches! It aches!" + +She clutched her breast and swung from the room, moving with that +vigorous stride that had once appealed to him so, and still did. +Alas, alas! it touched him now, but only as a part of a very shifty +and cruel world. He hurried out of the room after her, and (as +at the time of the Rita Sohlberg incident) slipped his arm about +her waist; but she pulled away irritably. "No, no!" she exclaimed. +"Let me alone. I'm tired of that." + +"You're really not fair to me, Aileen," with a great show of feeling +and sincerity. "You're letting one affair that came between us +blind your whole point of view. I give you my word I haven't been +unfaithful to you with Stephanie Platow or any other woman. I may +have flirted with them a little, but that is really nothing. Why +not be sensible? I'm not as black as you paint me. I'm moving in +big matters that are as much for your concern and future as for +mine. Be sensible, be liberal." + +There was much argument--the usual charges and countercharges--but, +finally, because of her weariness of heart, his petting, the +unsolvability of it all, she permitted him for the time being to +persuade her that there were still some crumbs of affection left. +She was soul-sick, heartsick. Even he, as he attempted to soothe +her, realized clearly that to establish the reality of his love +in her belief he would have to make some much greater effort to +entertain and comfort her, and that this, in his present mood, and +with his leaning toward promiscuity, was practically impossible. +For the time being a peace might be patched up, but in view of +what she expected of him--her passion and selfish individuality +--it could not be. He would have to go on, and she would have to +leave him, if needs be; but he could not cease or go back. He +was too passionate, too radiant, too individual and complex to +belong to any one single individual alone. + + + + +Chapter XXX + + + +Obstacles + +The impediments that can arise to baffle a great and swelling +career are strange and various. In some instances all the +cross-waves of life must be cut by the strong swimmer. With +other personalities there is a chance, or force, that happily +allies itself with them; or they quite unconsciously ally themselves +with it, and find that there is a tide that bears them on. Divine +will? Not necessarily. There is no understanding of it. Guardian +spirits? There are many who so believe, to their utter undoing. +(Witness Macbeth). An unconscious drift in the direction of right, +virtue, duty? These are banners of mortal manufacture. Nothing is +proved; all is permitted. + +Not long after Cowperwood's accession to control on the West Side, +for instance, a contest took place between his corporation and a +citizen by the name of Redmond Purdy--real-estate investor, +property-trader, and money-lender--which set Chicago by the ears. +The La Salle and Washington Street tunnels were now in active +service, but because of the great north and south area of the West +Side, necessitating the cabling of Van Buren Street and Blue Island +Avenue, there was need of a third tunnel somewhere south of +Washington Street, preferably at Van Buren Street, because the +business heart was thus more directly reached. Cowperwood was +willing and anxious to build this tunnel, though he was puzzled +how to secure from the city a right of way under Van Buren Street, +where a bridge loaded with heavy traffic now swung. There were +all sorts of complications. In the first place, the consent of +the War Department at Washington had to be secured in order to +tunnel under the river at all. Secondly, the excavation, if +directly under the bridge, might prove an intolerable nuisance, +necessitating the closing or removal of the bridge. Owing to the +critical, not to say hostile, attitude of the newspapers which, +since the La Salle and Washington tunnel grants, were following +his every move with a searchlight, Cowperwood decided not to +petition the city for privileges in this case, but instead to buy +the property rights of sufficient land just north of the bridge, +where the digging of the tunnel could proceed without interference. + +The piece of land most suitable for this purpose, a lot 150 x 150, +lying a little way from the river-bank, and occupied by a seven-story +loft-building, was owned by the previously mentioned Redmond Purdy, +a long, thin, angular, dirty person, who wore celluloid collars +and cuffs and spoke with a nasal intonation. + +Cowperwood had the customary overtures made by seemingly disinterested +parties endeavoring to secure the land at a fair price. But Purdy, +who was as stingy as a miser and as incisive as a rat-trap, had +caught wind of the proposed tunnel scheme. He was all alive for +a fine profit. "No, no, no," he declared, over and over, when +approached by the representatives of Mr. Sylvester Toomey, +Cowperwood's ubiquitous land-agent. "I don't want to sell. Go +away." + +Mr. Sylvester Toomey was finally at his wit's end, and complained +to Cowperwood, who at once sent for those noble beacons of dark +and stormy waters, General Van Sickle and the Hon. Kent Barrows +McKibben. The General was now becoming a little dolty, and +Cowperwood was thinking of pensioning him; but McKibben was in his +prime--smug, handsome, deadly, smooth. After talking it over with +Mr. Toomey they returned to Cowperwood's office with a promising +scheme. The Hon. Nahum Dickensheets, one of the judges of the +State Court of Appeals, and a man long since attached, by methods +which need not here be described, to Cowperwood's star, had been +persuaded to bring his extensive technical knowledge to bear on +the emergency. At his suggestion the work of digging the tunnel +was at once begun--first at the east or Franklin Street end; then, +after eight months' digging, at the west or Canal Street end. A +shaft was actually sunk some thirty feet back of Mr. Purdy's +building--between it and the river--while that gentleman watched +with a quizzical gleam in his eye this defiant procedure. He was +sure that when it came to the necessity of annexing his property +the North and West Chicago Street Railways would be obliged to pay +through the nose. + +"Well, I'll be cussed," be frequently observed to himself, for he +could not see how his exaction of a pound of flesh was to be evaded, +and yet he felt strangely restless at times. Finally, when it +became absolutely necessary for Cowperwood to secure without further +delay this coveted strip, he sent for its occupant, who called in +pleasant anticipation of a profitable conversation; this should +be worth a small fortune to him. + +"Mr. Purdy," observed Cowperwood, glibly, "you have a piece of +land on the other side of the river that I need. Why don't you +sell it to me? Can't we fix this up now in some amicable way?" + +He smiled while Purdy cast shrewd, wolfish glances about the place, +wondering how much he could really hope to exact. The building, +with all its interior equipment, land, and all, was worth in the +neighborhood of two hundred thousand dollars. + +"Why should I sell? The building is a good building. It's as +useful to me as it would be to you. I'm making money out of it." + +"Quite true," replied Cowperwood, "but I am willing to pay you a +fair price for it. A public utility is involved. This tunnel +will be a good thing for the West Side and any other land you may +own over there. With what I will pay you you can buy more land +in that neighborhood or elsewhere, and make a good thing out of +it. We need to put this tunnel just where it is, or I wouldn't +trouble to argue with you. + +"That's just it," replied Purdy, fixedly. "You've gone ahead and +dug your tunnel without consulting me, and now you expect me to +get out of the way. Well, I don't see that I'm called on to get +out of there just to please you." + +"But I'll pay you a fair price." + +"How much will you pay me?" + +"How much do you want?" + +Mr. Purdy scratched a fox-like ear. "One million dollars." + +"One million dollars!" exclaimed Cowperwood. "Don't you think +that's a little steep, Mr. Purdy?" + +"No," replied Purdy, sagely. "It's not any more than it's worth." + +Cowperwood sighed. + +"I'm sorry," he replied, meditatively, "but this is really too +much. Wouldn't you take three hundred thousand dollars in cash +now and consider this thing closed?" + +"One million," replied Purdy, looking sternly at the ceiling. +"Very well, Mr. Purdy," replied Cowperwood. "I'm very sorry. +It's plain to me that we can't do business as I had hoped. I'm +willing to pay you a reasonable sum; but what you ask is far too +much--preposterous! Don't you think you'd better reconsider? We +might move the tunnel even yet." + +"One million dollars," said Purdy. + +"It can't be done, Mr. Purdy. It isn't worth it. Why won't you +be fair? Call it three hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars +cash, and my check to-night." + +"I wouldn't take five or six hundred thousand dollars if you were +to offer it to me, Mr. Cowperwood, to-night or any other time. I +know my rights." + +"Very well, then," replied Cowperwood, "that's all I can say. If +you won't sell, you won't sell. Perhaps you'll change your mind +later." + +Mr. Purdy went out, and Cowperwood called in his lawyers and his +engineers. One Saturday afternoon, a week or two later, when the +building in question had been vacated for the day, a company of +three hundred laborers, with wagons, picks, shovels, and dynamite +sticks, arrived. By sundown of the next day (which, being Sunday, +was a legal holiday, with no courts open or sitting to issue +injunctions) this comely structure, the private property of Mr. +Redmond Purdy, was completely razed and a large excavation substituted +in its stead. The gentleman of the celluloid cuffs and collars, +when informed about nine o'clock of this same Sunday morning that +his building had been almost completely removed, was naturally +greatly perturbed. A portion of the wall was still standing when +he arrived, hot and excited, and the police were appealed to. + +But, strange to say, this was of little avail, for they were shown +a writ of injunction issued by the court of highest jurisdiction, +presided over by the Hon. Nahum Dickensheets, which restrained +all and sundry from interfering. (Subsequently on demand of another +court this remarkable document was discovered to have disappeared; +the contention was that it had never really existed or been produced +at all.) + +The demolition and digging proceeded. Then began a scurrying of +lawyers to the door of one friendly judge after another. There +were apoplectic cheeks, blazing eyes, and gasps for breath while +the enormity of the offense was being noised abroad. Law is law, +however. Procedure is procedure, and no writ of injunction was +either issuable or returnable on a legal holiday, when no courts +were sitting. Nevertheless, by three o'clock in the afternoon an +obliging magistrate was found who consented to issue an injunction +staying this terrible crime. By this time, however, the building +was gone, the excavation complete. It remained merely for the +West Chicago Street Railway Company to secure an injunction vacating +the first injunction, praying that its rights, privileges, liberties, +etc., be not interfered with, and so creating a contest which +naturally threw the matter into the State Court of Appeals, where +it could safely lie. For several years there were numberless +injunctions, writs of errors, doubts, motions to reconsider, threats +to carry the matter from the state to the federal courts on a +matter of constitutional privilege, and the like. The affair was +finally settled out of court, for Mr. Purdy by this time was a +more sensible man. In the mean time, however, the newspapers had +been given full details of the transaction, and a storm of words +against Cowperwood ensued. + +But more disturbing than the Redmond Purdy incident was the rivalry +of a new Chicago street-railway company. It appeared first as an +idea in the brain of one James Furnivale Woolsen, a determined +young Westerner from California, and developed by degrees into +consents and petitions from fully two-thirds of the residents of +various streets in the extreme southwest section of the city where +it was proposed the new line should be located. This same James +Furnivale Woolsen, being an ambitious person, was not to be so +easily put down. Besides the consent and petitions, which Cowperwood +could not easily get away from him, he had a new form of traction +then being tried out in several minor cities--a form of electric +propulsion by means of an overhead wire and a traveling pole, which +was said to be very economical, and to give a service better than +cables and cheaper even than horses. + +Cowperwood had heard all about this new electric system some time +before, and had been studying it for several years with the greatest +interest, since it promised to revolutionize the whole business +of street-railroading. However, having but so recently completed +his excellent cable system, he did not see that it was advisable +to throw it away. The trolley was as yet too much of a novelty; +certainly it was not advisable to have it introduced into Chicago +until he was ready to introduce it himself--first on his outlying +feeder lines, he thought, then perhaps generally. + +But before he could take suitable action against Woolsen, that +engaging young upstart, who was possessed of a high-power imagination +and a gift of gab, had allied himself with such interested investors +as Truman Leslie MacDonald, who saw here a heaven-sent opportunity +of mulcting Cowperwood, and Jordan Jules, once the president of +the North Chicago Gas Company, who had lost money through Cowperwood +in the gas war. Two better instruments for goading a man whom +they considered an enemy could not well be imagined--Truman Leslie +with his dark, waspish, mistrustful, jealous eyes, and his slim, +vital body; and Jordan Jules, short, rotund, sandy, a sickly crop +of thin, oily, light hair growing down over his coat-collar, his +forehead and crown glisteningly bald, his eyes a seeking, searching, +revengeful blue. They in turn brought in Samuel Blackman, once +president of the South Side Gas Company; Sunderland Sledd, of local +railroad management and stock-investment fame; and Norrie Simms, +president of the Douglas Trust Company, who, however, was little +more than a fiscal agent. The general feeling was that Cowperwood's +defensive tactics--which consisted in having the city council +refuse to act--could be easily met. + +"Well, I think we can soon fix that," exclaimed young MacDonald, +one morning at a meeting. "We ought to be able to smoke them out. +A little publicity will do it." + +He appealed to his father, the editor of the Inquirer, but the +latter refused to act for the time being, seeing that his son was +interested. MacDonald, enraged at the do-nothing attitude of the +council, invaded that body and demanded of Alderman Dowling, still +leader, why this matter of the Chicago general ordinances was still +lying unconsidered. Mr. Dowling, a large, mushy, placid man with +blue eyes, an iron frame, and a beefy smile, vouchsafed the +information that, although he was chairman of the committee on +streets and alleys, he knew nothing about it. "I haven't been +payin' much attention to things lately," he replied. + +Mr. MacDonald went to see the remaining members of this same +committee. They were non-committal. They would have to look into +the matter. Somebody claimed that there was a flaw in the petitions. + +Evidently there was crooked work here somewhere. Cowperwood was +to blame, no doubt. MacDonald conferred with Blackman and Jordan +Jules, and it was determined that the council should be harried +into doing its duty. This was a legitimate enterprise. A new and +better system of traction was being kept out of the city. Schryhart, +since he was offered an interest, and since there was considerable +chance of his being able to dominate the new enterprise, agreed +that the ordinances ought to be acted upon. In consequence there +was a renewed hubbub in the newspapers. + +It was pointed out through Schryhart's Chronicle, through Hyssop's +and Merrill's papers, and through the Inquirer that such a situation +was intolerable. If the dominant party, at the behest of so +sinister an influence as Cowperwood, was to tie up all outside +traction legislation, there could be but one thing left--an appeal +to the voters of the city to turn the rascals out. No party could +survive such a record of political trickery and financial jugglery. +McKenty, Dowling, Cowperwood, and others were characterized as +unreasonable obstructionists and debasing influences. But Cowperwood +merely smiled. These were the caterwaulings of the enemy. Later, +when young MacDonald threatened to bring legal action to compel +the council to do its duty, Cowperwood and his associates were not +so cheerful. A mandamus proceeding, however futile, would give +the newspapers great opportunity for chatter; moreover, a city +election was drawing near. However, McKenty and Cowperwood were +by no means helpless. They had offices, jobs, funds, a well-organized +party system, the saloons, the dives, and those dark chambers where +at late hours ballot-boxes are incontinently stuffed. + +Did Cowperwood share personally in all this? Not at all. Or McKenty? +No. In good tweed and fine linen they frequently conferred in the +offices of the Chicago Trust Company, the president's office of +the North Chicago Street Railway System, and Mr. Cowperwood's +library. No dark scenes were ever enacted there. But just the +same, when the time came, the Schryhart-Simms-MacDonald editorial +combination did not win. Mr. McKenty's party had the votes. A +number of the most flagrantly debauched aldermen, it is true, were +defeated; but what is an alderman here and there? The newly elected +ones, even in the face of pre-election promises and vows, could +be easily suborned or convinced. So the anti-Cowperwood element +was just where it was before; but the feeling against him was much +stronger, and considerable sentiment generated in the public at +large that there was something wrong with the Cowperwood method +of street-railway control. + + + + +Chapter XXXI + + + +Untoward Disclosures + +Coincident with these public disturbances and of subsequent hearing +upon them was the discovery by Editor Haguenin of Cowperwood's +relationship with Cecily. It came about not through Aileen, who +was no longer willing to fight Cowperwood in this matter, but +through Haguenin's lady society editor, who, hearing rumors in the +social world, springing from heaven knows where, and being beholden +to Haguenin for many favors, had carried the matter to him in a +very direct way. Haguenin, a man of insufficient worldliness in +spite of his journalistic profession, scarcely believed it. +Cowperwood was so suave, so commercial. He had heard many things +concerning him--his past--but Cowperwood's present state in Chicago +was such, it seemed to him, as to preclude petty affairs of this +kind. Still, the name of his daughter being involved, he took the +matter up with Cecily, who under pressure confessed. She made the +usual plea that she was of age, and that she wished to live her +own life--logic which she had gathered largely from Cowperwood's +attitude. Haguenin did nothing about it at first, thinking to +send Cecily off to an aunt in Nebraska; but, finding her intractable, +and fearing some counter-advice or reprisal on the part of Cowperwood, +who, by the way, had indorsed paper to the extent of one hundred +thousand dollars for him, he decided to discuss matters first. +It meant a cessation of relations and some inconvenient financial +readjustments; but it had to be. He was just on the point of +calling on Cowperwood when the latter, unaware as yet of the latest +development in regard to Cecily, and having some variation of his +council programme to discuss with Haguenin, asked him over the +'phone to lunch. Haguenin was much surprised, but in a way relieved. +"I am busy," he said, very heavily, "but cannot you come to the +office some time to-day? There is something I would like to see +you about." + +Cowperwood, imagining that there was some editorial or local +political development on foot which might be of interest to him, +made an appointment for shortly after four. He drove to the +publisher's office in the Press Building, and was greeted by a +grave and almost despondent man. + +"Mr. Cowperwood," began Haguenin, when the financier entered, smart +and trig, his usual air of genial sufficiency written all over +him, "I have known you now for something like fourteen years, and +during this time I have shown you nothing but courtesy and good +will. It is true that quite recently you have done me various +financial favors, but that was more due, I thought, to the sincere +friendship you bore me than to anything else. Quite accidentally +I have learned of the relationship that exists between you and my +daughter. I have recently spoken to her, and she admitted all +that I need to know. Common decency, it seems to me, might have +suggested to you that you leave my child out of the list of women +you have degraded. Since it has not, I merely wish to say to +you"--and Mr. Haguenin's face was very tense and white--"that the +relationship between you and me is ended. The one hundred thousand +dollars you have indorsed for me will be arranged for otherwise +as soon as possible, and I hope you will return to me the stock +of this paper that you hold as collateral. Another type of man, +Mr. Cowperwood, might attempt to make you suffer in another way. +I presume that you have no children of your own, or that if you +have you lack the parental instinct; otherwise you could not have +injured me in this fashion. I believe that you will live to see +that this policy does not pay in Chicago or anywhere else." + +Haguenin turned slowly on his heel toward his desk. Cowperwood, +who had listened very patiently and very fixedly, without a tremor +of an eyelash, merely said: "There seems to be no common intellectual +ground, Mr. Haguenin, upon which you and I can meet in this matter. +You cannot understand my point of view. I could not possibly adopt +yours. However, as you wish it, the stock will be returned to +you upon receipt of my indorsements. I cannot say more than that." + +He turned and walked unconcernedly out, thinking that it was too +bad to lose the support of so respectable a man, but also that he +could do without it. It was silly the way parents insisted on +their daughters being something that they did not wish to be. + +Haguenin stood by his desk after Cowperwood had gone, wondering +where he should get one hundred thousand dollars quickly, and also +what he should do to make his daughter see the error of her ways. +It was an astonishing blow he had received, he thought, in the +house of a friend. It occurred to him that Walter Melville Hyssop, +who was succeeding mightily with his two papers, might come to his +rescue, and that later he could repay him when the Press was more +prosperous. He went out to his house in a quandary concerning +life and chance; while Cowperwood went to the Chicago Trust Company +to confer with Videra, and later out to his own home to consider +how he should equalize this loss. The state and fate of Cecily +Haguenin was not of so much importance as many other things on his +mind at this time. + +Far more serious were his cogitations with regard to a liaison he +had recently ventured to establish with Mrs. Hosmer Hand, wife of +an eminent investor and financier. Hand was a solid, phlegmatic, +heavy-thinking person who had some years before lost his first +wife, to whom he had been eminently faithful. After that, for a +period of years he had been a lonely speculator, attending to his +vast affairs; but finally because of his enormous wealth, his +rather presentable appearance and social rank, he had been entrapped +by much social attention on the part of a Mrs. Jessie Drew Barrett +into marrying her daughter Caroline, a dashing skip of a girl who +was clever, incisive, calculating, and intensely gay. Since she +was socially ambitious, and without much heart, the thought of +Hand's millions, and how advantageous would be her situation in +case he should die, had enabled her to overlook quite easily his +heavy, unyouthful appearance and to see him in the light of a +lover. There was criticism, of course. Hand was considered a +victim, and Caroline and her mother designing minxes and cats; but +since the wealthy financier was truly ensnared it behooved friends +and future satellites to be courteous, and so they were. The +wedding was very well attended. Mrs. Hand began to give house-parties, +teas, musicales, and receptions on a lavish scale. + +Cowperwood never met either her or her husband until he was well +launched on his street-car programme. Needing two hundred and +fifty thousand dollars in a hurry, and finding the Chicago Trust +Company, the Lake City Bank, and other institutions heavily loaded +with his securities, he turned in a moment of inspirational thought +to Hand. Cowperwood was always a great borrower. His paper was +out in large quantities. He introduced himself frequently to +powerful men in this way, taking long or short loans at high or +low rates of interest, as the case might be, and sometimes finding +some one whom he could work with or use. In the case of Hand, +though the latter was ostensibly of the enemies' camp--the +Schryhart-Union-Gas-Douglas-Trust-Company crowd--nevertheless +Cowperwood had no hesitation in going to him. He wished to overcome +or forestall any unfavorable impression. Though Hand, a solemn +man of shrewd but honest nature, had heard a number of unfavorable +rumors, he was inclined to be fair and think the best. Perhaps +Cowperwood was merely the victim of envious rivals. + +When the latter first called on him at his office in the Rookery +Building, he was most cordial. "Come in, Mr. Cowperwood," he said. +"I have heard a great deal about you from one person and another +--mostly from the newspapers. What can I do for you?" + +Cowperwood exhibited five hundred thousand dollars' worth of West +Chicago Street Railway stock. "I want to know if I can get two +hundred and fifty thousand dollars on those by to-morrow morning." + +Hand, a placid man, looked at the securities peacefully. "What's +the matter with your own bank?" He was referring to the Chicago +Trust Company. "Can't it take care of them for you?" + +"Loaded up with other things just now," smiled Cowperwood, +ingratiatingly. + +"Well, if I can believe all the papers say, you're going to wreck +these roads or Chicago or yourself; but I don't live by the papers. +How long would you want it for?" + +"Six months, perhaps. A year, if you choose." + +Hand turned over the securities, eying their gold seals. "Five +hundred thousand dollars' worth of six per cent. West Chicago +preferred," he commented. "Are you earning six per cent.?" + +"We're earning eight right now. You'll live to see the day when +these shares will sell at two hundred dollars and pay twelve per +cent. at that." + +"And you've quadrupled the issue of the old company? Well, Chicago's +growing. Leave them here until to-morrow or bring them back. +Send over or call me, and I'll tell you." + +They talked for a little while on street-railway and corporation +matters. Hand wanted to know something concerning West Chicago +land--a region adjoining Ravenswood. Cowperwood gave him his best +advice. + +The next day he 'phoned, and the stocks, so Hand informed him, +were available. He would send a check over. So thus a tentative +friendship began, and it lasted until the relationship between +Cowperwood and Mrs. Hand was consummated and discovered. + +In Caroline Barrett, as she occasionally preferred to sign herself, +Cowperwood encountered a woman who was as restless and fickle as +himself, but not so shrewd. Socially ambitious, she was anything +but socially conventional, and she did not care for Hand. Once +married, she had planned to repay herself in part by a very gay +existence. The affair between her and Cowperwood had begun at a +dinner at the magnificent residence of Hand on the North Shore +Drive overlooking the lake. Cowperwood had gone to talk over with +her husband various Chicago matters. Mrs. Hand was excited by his +risque reputation. A little woman in stature, with intensely white +teeth, red lips which she did not hesitate to rouge on occasion, +brown hair, and small brown eyes which had a gay, searching, defiant +twinkle in them, she did her best to be interesting, clever, witty, +and she was. + +"I know Frank Cowperwood by reputation, anyhow," she exclaimed, +holding out a small, white, jeweled hand, the nails of which at +their juncture with the flesh were tinged with henna, and the palms +of which were slightly rouged. Her eyes blazed, and her teeth +gleamed. "One can scarcely read of anything else in the Chicago +papers." + +Cowperwood returned his most winning beam. "I'm delighted to meet +you, Mrs. Hand. I have read of you, too. But I hope you don't +believe all the papers say about me." + +"And if I did it wouldn't hurt you in my estimation. To do is to +be talked about in these days." + +Cowperwood, because of his desire to employ the services of Hand, +was at his best. He kept the conversation within conventional +lines; but all the while he was exchanging secret, unobserved +smiles with Mrs. Hand, whom he realized at once had married Hand +for his money, and was bent, under a somewhat jealous espionage, +to have a good time anyhow. There is a kind of eagerness that +goes with those who are watched and wish to escape that gives them +a gay, electric awareness and sparkle in the presence of an +opportunity for release. Mrs. Hand had this. Cowperwood, a past +master in this matter of femininity, studied her hands, her hair, +her eyes, her smile. After some contemplation he decided, other +things being equal, that Mrs. Hand would do, and that he could be +interested if she were very much interested in him. Her telling +eyes and smiles, the heightened color of her cheeks indicated after +a time that she was. + +Meeting him on the street one day not long after they had first +met, she told him that she was going for a visit to friends at +Oconomowoc, in Wisconsin. + +"I don't suppose you ever get up that far north in summer, do you?" +she asked, with an air, and smiled. + +"I never have," he replied; "but there's no telling what I might +do if I were bantered. I suppose you ride and canoe?" + +"Oh yes; and play tennis and golf, too." + +"But where would a mere idler like me stay?" + +"Oh, there are several good hotels. There's never any trouble +about that. I suppose you ride yourself?" + +"After a fashion," replied Cowperwood, who was an expert. + +Witness then the casual encounter on horseback, early one Sunday +morning in the painted hills of Wisconsin, of Frank Algernon +Cowperwood and Caroline Hand. A jaunty, racing canter, side by +side; idle talk concerning people, scenery, conveniences; his usual +direct suggestions and love-making, and then, subsequently + +The day of reckoning, if such it might be called, came later. + +Caroline Hand was, perhaps, unduly reckless. She admired Cowperwood +greatly without really loving him. He found her interesting, +principally because she was young, debonair, sufficient--a new +type. They met in Chicago after a time instead of in Wisconsin, +then in Detroit (where she had friends), then in Rockford, where +a sister had gone to live. It was easy for him with his time and +means. Finally, Duane Kingsland, wholesale flour merchant, +religious, moral, conventional, who knew Cowperwood and his repute, +encountered Mrs. Hand and Cowperwood first near Oconomowoc one +summer's day, and later in Randolph Street, near Cowperwood's +bachelor rooms. Being the man that he was and knowing old Hand +well, he thought it was his duty to ask the latter if his wife +knew Cowperwood intimately. There was an explosion in the Hand +home. Mrs. Hand, when confronted by her husband, denied, of course, +that there was anything wrong between her and Cowperwood. Her +elderly husband, from a certain telltale excitement and resentment +in her manner, did not believe this. He thought once of confronting +Cowperwood; but, being heavy and practical, he finally decided to +sever all business relationships with him and fight him in other +ways. Mrs. Hand was watched very closely, and a suborned maid +discovered an old note she had written to Cowperwood. An attempt +to persuade her to leave for Europe--as old Butler had once +attempted to send Aileen years before--raised a storm of protest, +but she went. Hand, from being neutral if not friendly, became +quite the most dangerous and forceful of all Cowperwood's Chicago +enemies. He was a powerful man. His wrath was boundless. He +looked upon Cowperwood now as a dark and dangerous man--one of +whom Chicago would be well rid. + + + + +Chapter XXXII + + + +A Supper Party + +Since the days in which Aileen had been left more or less lonely +by Cowperwood, however, no two individuals had been more faithful +in their attentions than Taylor Lord and Kent McKibben. Both were +fond of her in a general way, finding her interesting physically +and temperamentally; but, being beholden to the magnate for many +favors, they were exceedingly circumspect in their attitude toward +her, particularly during those early years in which they knew that +Cowperwood was intensely devoted to her. Later they were not so +careful. + +It was during this latter period that Aileen came gradually, through +the agency of these two men, to share in a form of mid-world life +that was not utterly dull. In every large city there is a kind +of social half world, where artists and the more adventurous of +the socially unconventional and restless meet for an exchange of +things which cannot be counted mere social form and civility. It +is the age-old world of Bohemia. Hither resort those "accidentals" +of fancy that make the stage, the drawing-room, and all the schools +of artistic endeavor interesting or peculiar. In a number of +studios in Chicago such as those of Lane Cross and Rhees Crier, +such little circles were to be found. Rhees Crier, for instance, +a purely parlor artist, with all the airs, conventions, and social +adaptability of the tribe, had quite a following. Here and to +several other places by turns Taylor Lord and Kent McKibben conducted +Aileen, both asking and obtaining permission to be civil to her +when Cowperwood was away. + +Among the friends of these two at this time was a certain Polk +Lynde, an interesting society figure, whose father owned an immense +reaper works, and whose time was spent in idling, racing, gambling, +socializing--anything, in short, that it came into his head to do. +He was tall, dark, athletic, straight, muscular, with a small dark +mustache, dark, black-brown eyes, kinky black hair, and a fine, +almost military carriage--which he clothed always to the best +advantage. A clever philanderer, it was quite his pride that he +did not boast of his conquests. One look at him, however, by the +initiated, and the story was told. Aileen first saw him on a visit +to the studio of Rhees Grier. Being introduced to him very casually +on this occasion, she was nevertheless clearly conscious that she +was encountering a fascinating man, and that he was fixing her +with a warm, avid eye. For the moment she recoiled from him as +being a little too brazen in his stare, and yet she admired the +general appearance of him. He was of that smart world that she +admired so much, and from which now apparently she was hopelessly +debarred. That trig, bold air of his realized for her at last the +type of man, outside of Cowperwood, whom she would prefer within +limits to admire her. If she were going to be "bad," as she would +have phrased it to herself, she would be "bad" with a man such as +he. He would be winsome and coaxing, but at the same time strong, +direct, deliciously brutal, like her Frank. He had, too, what +Cowperwood could not have, a certain social air or swagger which +came with idleness, much loafing, a sense of social superiority +and security--a devil-may-care insouciance which recks little of +other people's will or whims. + +When she next saw him, which was several weeks later at an affair +of the Courtney Tabors, friends of Lord's, he exclaimed: + +"Oh yes. By George! You're the Mrs. Cowperwood I met several weeks +ago at Rhees Grier's studio. I've not forgotten you. I've seen +you in my eye all over Chicago. Taylor Lord introduced me to you. +Say, but you're a beautiful woman!" + +He leaned ingratiatingly, whimsically, admiringly near. + +Aileen realized that for so early in the afternoon, and considering +the crowd, he was curiously enthusiastic. The truth was that +because of some rounds he had made elsewhere he was verging toward +too much liquor. His eye was alight, his color coppery, his air +swagger, devil-may-care, bacchanal. This made her a little cautious; +but she rather liked his brown, hard face, handsome mouth, and crisp +Jovian curls. His compliment was not utterly improper; but she +nevertheless attempted coyly to avoid him. + +"Come, Polk, here's an old friend of yours over here--Sadie Boutwell +--she wants to meet you again," some one observed, catching him +by the arm. + +"No, you don't," he exclaimed, genially, and yet at the same time +a little resentfully--the kind of disjointed resentment a man who +has had the least bit too much is apt to feel on being interrupted. +"I'm not going to walk all over Chicago thinking of a woman I've +seen somewhere only to be carried away the first time I do meet +her. I'm going to talk to her first." + +Aileen laughed. "It's charming of you, but we can meet again, +perhaps. Besides, there's some one here"--Lord was tactfully +directing her attention to another woman. Rhees Grier and McKibben, +who were present also, came to her assistance. In the hubbub that +ensued Aileen was temporarily extricated and Lynde tactfully steered +out of her way. But they had met again, and it was not to be the +last time. Subsequent to this second meeting, Lynde thought the +matter over quite calmly, and decided that he must make a definite +effort to become more intimate with Aileen. Though she was not +as young as some others, she suited his present mood exactly. She +was rich physically--voluptuous and sentient. She was not of his +world precisely, but what of it? She was the wife of an eminent +financier, who had been in society once, and she herself had a +dramatic record. He was sure of that. He could win her if he +wanted to. It would be easy, knowing her as he did, and knowing +what he did about her. + +So not long after, Lynde ventured to invite her, with Lord, McKibben, +Mr. and Mrs. Rhees Grier, and a young girl friend of Mrs. Grier +who was rather attractive, a Miss Chrystobel Lanman, to a theater +and supper party. The programme was to hear a reigning farce at +Hooley's, then to sup at the Richelieu, and finally to visit a +certain exclusive gambling-parlor which then flourished on the +South Side--the resort of actors, society gamblers, and the like +--where roulette, trente-et-quarante, baccarat, and the honest +game of poker, to say nothing of various other games of chance, +could be played amid exceedingly recherche surroundings. + +The party was gay, especially after the adjournment to the Richelieu, +where special dishes of chicken, lobster, and a bucket of champagne +were served. Later at the Alcott Club, as the gambling resort was +known, Aileen, according to Lynde, was to be taught to play baccarat, +poker, and any other game that she wished. "You follow my advice, +Mrs. Cowperwood," he observed, cheerfully, at dinner--being host, +he had put her between himself and McKibben--"and I'll show you +how to get your money back anyhow. That's more than some others +can do," he added, spiritedly, recalling by a look a recent occasion +when he and McKibben, being out with friends, the latter had advised +liberally and had seen his advice go wrong. + +"Have you been gambling, Kent?" asked Aileen, archly, turning to +her long-time social mentor and friend. + +"No, I can honestly say I haven't," replied McKibben, with a bland +smile. "I may have thought I was gambling, but I admit I don't +know how. Now Polk, here, wins all the time, don't you, Polk? +Just follow him." + +A wry smile spread over Lynde's face at this, for it was on record +in certain circles that he had lost as much as ten and even fifteen +thousand in an evening. He also had a record of winning twenty-five +thousand once at baccarat at an all-night and all-day sitting, and +then losing it. + +Lynde all through the evening had been casting hard, meaning glances +into Aileen's eyes. She could not avoid this, and she did not +feel that she wanted to. He was so charming. He was talking to +her half the time at the theater, without apparently addressing +or even seeing her. Aileen knew well enough what was in his mind. +At times, quite as in those days when she had first met Cowperwood, +she felt an unwilled titillation in her blood. Her eyes brightened. +It was just possible that she could come to love a man like this, +although it would be hard. It would serve Cowperwood right for +neglecting her. Yet even now the shadow of Cowperwood was over +her, but also the desire for love and a full sex life. + +In the gambling-rooms was gathered an interested and fairly smart +throng--actors, actresses, clubmen, one or two very emancipated +women of the high local social world, and a number of more or less +gentlemanly young gamblers. Both Lord and McKibben began suggesting +column numbers for first plays to their proteges, while Lynde +leaned caressingly over Aileen's powdered shoulders. "Let me put +this on quatre premier for you," he suggested, throwing down a +twenty-dollar gold piece. + +"Oh, but let it be my money," complained Aileen. "I want to play +with my money. I won't feel that it's mine if I don't." + +"Very well, but you can't just now. You can't play with bills." +She was extracting a crisp roll from her purse. "I'll have to +exchange them later for you for gold. You can pay me then. He's +going to call now, anyhow. There you are. He's done it. Wait a +moment. You may win." And he paused to study the little ball as +it circled round and round above the receiving pockets. + +"Let me see. How much do I get if I win quatre premier?" She was +trying to recall her experiences abroad. + +"Ten for one," replied Lynde; "but you didn't get it. Let's try +it once more for luck. It comes up every so often--once in ten +or twelve. I've made it often on a first play. How long has it +been since the last quatre premier?" he asked of a neighbor whom +he recognized. + +"Seven, I think, Polk. Six or seven. How's tricks?" + +"Oh, so so." He turned again to Aileen. "It ought to come up now +soon. I always make it a rule to double my plays each time. It +gets you back all you've lost, some time or other." He put down +two twenties. + +"Goodness," she exclaimed, "that will be two hundred! I had forgotten +that." + +Just then the call came for all placements to cease, and Aileen +directed her attention to the ball. It circled and circled in its +dizzy way and then suddenly dropped. + +"Lost again," commented Lynde. "Well, now we'll make it eighty," +and he threw down four twenties. "Just for luck we'll put something +on thirty-six, and thirteen, and nine. With an easy air he laid +one hundred dollars in gold on each number. + +Aileen liked his manner. This was like Frank. Lynde had the cool +spirit of a plunger. His father, recognizing his temperament, had +set over a large fixed sum to he paid to him annually. She +recognized, as in Cowperwood, the spirit of adventure, only working +out in another way. Lynde was perhaps destined to come to some +startlingly reckless end, but what of it? He was a gentleman. His +position in life was secure. That had always been Aileen's sad, +secret thought. Hers had not been and might never be now. + +"Oh, I'm getting foozled already," she exclaimed, gaily reverting +to a girlhood habit of clapping her hands. "How much will I win +if I win?" The gesture attracted attention even as the ball fell. + +"By George, you have it!" exclaimed Lynde, who was watching the +croupier. "Eight hundred, two hundred, two hundred"--he was +counting to himself--"but we lose thirteen. Very good, that makes +us nearly one thousand ahead, counting out what we put down. +Rather nice for a beginning, don't you think? Now, if you'll take +my advice you'll not play quatre premier any more for a while. +Suppose you double a thirteen--you lost on that--and play Bates's +formula. I'll show you what that is." + +Already, because he was known to be a plunger, Lynde was gathering +a few spectators behind him, and Aileen, fascinated, and not knowing +these mysteries of chance, was content to watch him. At one stage +of the playing Lynde leaned over and, seeing her smile, whispered: + +"What adorable hair and eyes you have! You glow like a great rose. +You have a radiance that is wonderful." + +"Oh, Mr. Lynde! How you talk! Does gambling always affect you this +way?" + +"No, you do. Always, apparently!" And he stared hard into her +upturned eyes. Still playing ostensibly for Aileen's benefit, he +now doubled the cash deposit on his system, laying down a thousand +in gold. Aileen urged him to play for himself and let her watch. +"I'll just put a little money on these odd numbers here and there, +and you play any system you want. How will that do?" + +"No, not at all," he replied, feelingly. "You're my luck. I play +with you. You keep the gold for me. I'll make you a fine present +if I win. The losses are mine." + +"Just as you like. I don't know really enough about it to play. +But I surely get the nice present if you win?" + +"You do, win or lose," he murmured. "And now you put the money +on the numbers I call. Twenty on seven. Eighty on thirteen. +Eighty on thirty. Twenty on nine. Fifty on twenty-four." He was +following a system of his own, and in obedience Aileen's white, +plump arm reached here and there while the spectators paused, +realizing that heavier playing was being done by this pair than +by any one else. Lynde was plunging for effect. He lost a thousand +and fifty dollars at one clip. + +"Oh, all that good money!" exclaimed Aileen, mock-pathetically, +as the croupier raked it in. + +"Never mind, we'll get it back," exclaimed Lynde, throwing two +one-thousand-dollar bills to the cashier. "Give me gold for those." + +The man gave him a double handful, which he put down between +Aileen's white arms. + +"One hundred on two. One hundred on four. One hundred on six. +One hundred on eight." + +The pieces were five-dollar gold pieces, and Aileen quickly built +up the little yellow stacks and shoved them in place. Again the +other players stopped and began to watch the odd pair. Aileen's +red-gold head, and pink cheeks, and swimming eyes, her body swathed +in silks and rich laces; and Lynde, erect, his shirt bosom snowy +white, his face dark, almost coppery, his eyes and hair black--they +were indeed a strikingly assorted pair. + +"What's this? What's this?" asked Grier, coming up. "Who's plunging? +You, Mrs. Cowperwood?" + +"Not plunging," replied Lynde, indifferently. "We're merely working +out a formula--Mrs. Cowperwood and I. We're doing it together." + +Aileen smiled. She was in her element at last. She was beginning +to shine. She was attracting attention. + +"One hundred on twelve. One hundred on eighteen. One hundred on +twenty-six." + +"Good heavens, what are you up to, Lynde?" exclaimed Lord, leaving +Mrs. Rhees and coming over. She followed. Strangers also were +gathering. The business of the place was at its topmost toss--it +being two o'clock in the morning--and the rooms were full. + +"How interesting!" observed Miss Lanman, at the other end of the +table, pausing in her playing and staring. McKibben, who was +beside her, also paused. "They're plunging. Do look at all the +money! Goodness, isn't she daring-looking--and he?" Aileen's shining +arm was moving deftly, showily about. + +"Look at the bills he's breaking!" Lynde was taking out a thick +layer of fresh, yellow bills which he was exchanging for gold. +"They make a striking pair, don't they?" + +The board was now practically covered with Lynde's gold in quaint +little stacks. He had followed a system called Mazarin, which +should give him five for one, and possibly break the bank. Quite +a crowd swarmed about the table, their faces glowing in the +artificial light. The exclamation "plunging!" "plunging!" was to +be heard whispered here and there. Lynde was delightfully cool +and straight. His lithe body was quite erect, his eyes reflective, +his teeth set over an unlighted cigarette. Aileen was excited as +a child, delighted to be once more the center of comment. Lord +looked at her with sympathetic eyes. He liked her. Well, let her +he amused. It was good for her now and then; but Lynde was a fool +to make a show of himself and risk so much money. + +"Table closed!" called the croupier, and instantly the little ball +began to spin. All eyes followed it. Round and round it went +--Aileen as keen an observer as any. Her face was flushed, her +eyes bright. + +"If we lose this," said Lynde, "we will make one more bet double, +and then if we don't win that we'll quit." He was already out +nearly three thousand dollars. + +"Oh yes, indeed! Only I think we ought to quit now. Here goes two +thousand if we don't win. Don't you think that's quite enough? I +haven't brought you much luck, have I?" + +"You are luck," he whispered. "All the luck I want. One more. +Stand by me for one more try, will you? If we win I'll quit." + +The little ball clicked even as she nodded, and the croupier, +paying out on a few small stacks here and there, raked all the +rest solemnly into the receiving orifice, while murmurs of +sympathetic dissatisfaction went up here and there. + +"How much did they have on the board?" asked Miss Lanman of McKibben, +in surprise. "It must have been a great deal, wasn't it?" + +"Oh, two thousand dollars, perhaps. That isn't so high here, +though. People do plunge for as much as eight or ten thousand. +It all depends." McKibben was in a belittling, depreciating mood. + +"Oh yes, but not often, surely." + +"For the love of heavens, Polk!" exclaimed Rhees Grier, coming up +and plucking at his sleeve; "if you want to give your money away +give it to me. I can gather it in just as well as that croupier, +and I'll go get a truck and haul it home, where it will do some +good. It's perfectly terrible the way you are carrying on." + +Lynde took his loss with equanimity. "Now to double it," he +observed, "and get all our losses back, or go downstairs and have +a rarebit and some champagne. What form of a present would please +you best?--but never mind. I know a souvenir for this occasion. + +He smiled and bought more gold. Aileen stacked it up showily, if +a little repentantly. She did not quite approve of this--his +plunging--and yet she did; she could not help sympathizing with +the plunging spirit. In a few moments it was on the board--the +same combination, the same stacks, only doubled--four thousand all +told. The croupier called, the ball rolled and fell. Barring +three hundred dollars returned, the bank took it all. + +"Well, now for a rarebit," exclaimed Lynde, easily, turning to +Lord, who stood behind him smiling. "You haven't a match, have +you? We've had a run of bad luck, that's sure." + +Lynde was secretly the least bit disgruntled, for if he had won +he had intended to take a portion of the winnings and put it in a +necklace or some other gewgaw for Aileen. Now he must pay for it. +Yet there was some satisfaction in having made an impression as +a calm and indifferent, though heavy loser. He gave Aileen his +arm. + +"Well, my lady," he observed, "we didn't win; but we had a little +fun out of it, I hope? That combination, if it had come out, would +have set us up handsomely. Better luck next time, eh?" + +He smiled genially. + +"Yes, but I was to have been your luck, and I wasn't," replied +Aileen. + +"You are all the luck I want, if you're willing to be. Come to the +Richelieu to-morrow with me for lunch--will you?" + +"Let me see," replied Aileen, who, observing his ready and somewhat +iron fervor, was doubtful. "I can't do that," she said, finally, +"I have another engagement." + +"How about Tuesday, then?" + +Aileen, realizing of a sudden that she was making much of a situation +that ought to be handled with a light hand, answered readily: "Very +well--Tuesday! Only call me up before. I may have to change my +mind or the time." And she smiled good-naturedly. + +After this Lynde had no opportunity to talk to Aileen privately; +but in saying good night he ventured to press her arm suggestively. +She suffered a peculiar nervous thrill from this, but decided +curiously that she had brought it upon herself by her eagerness +for life and revenge, and must make up her mind. Did she or did +she not wish to go on with this? This was the question uppermost, +and she felt that she must decide. However, as in most such cases, +circumstances were to help decide for her, and, unquestionably, a +portion of this truth was in her mind as she was shown gallantly +to her door by Taylor Lord. + + + + +Chapter XXXIII + + + +Mr. Lynde to the Rescue + +The interested appearance of a man like Polk Lynde at this stage +of Aileen's affairs was a bit of fortuitous or gratuitous humor +on the part of fate, which is involved with that subconscious +chemistry of things of which as yet we know nothing. Here was +Aileen brooding over her fate, meditating over her wrongs, as it +were; and here was Polk Lynde, an interesting, forceful Lothario +of the city, who was perhaps as well suited to her moods and her +tastes at this time as any male outside of Cowperwood could be. + +In many respects Lynde was a charming man. He was comparatively +young--not more than Aileen's own age--schooled, if not educated, +at one of the best American colleges, of excellent taste in the +matter of clothes, friends, and the details of living with which +he chose to surround himself, but at heart a rake. He loved, and +had from his youth up, to gamble. He was in one phase of the word +a HARD and yet by no means a self-destructive drinker, for he had +an iron constitution and could consume spirituous waters with the +minimum of ill effect. He had what Gibbon was wont to call "the +most amiable of our vices," a passion for women, and he cared no +more for the cool, patient, almost penitent methods by which his +father had built up the immense reaper business, of which he was +supposedly the heir, than he cared for the mysteries or sacred +rights of the Chaldees. He realized that the business itself was +a splendid thing. He liked on occasion to think of it with all +its extent of ground-space, plain red-brick buildings, tall stacks +and yelling whistles; but he liked in no way to have anything to +do with the rather commonplace routine of its manipulation. + +The principal difficulty with Aileen under these circumstances, +of course, was her intense vanity and self-consciousness. Never +was there a vainer or more sex-troubled woman. Why, she asked +herself, should she sit here in loneliness day after day, brooding +about Cowperwood, eating her heart out, while he was flitting about +gathering the sweets of life elsewhere? Why should she not offer +her continued charms as a solace and a delight to other men who +would appreciate them? Would not such a policy have all the +essentials of justice in it? Yet even now, so precious had Cowperwood +been to her hitherto, and so wonderful, that she was scarcely able +to think of senous disloyalty. He was so charming when he was +nice--so splendid. When Lynde sought to hold her to the proposed +luncheon engagement she at first declined. And there, under +slightly differing conditions, the matter might easily have stood. +But it so happened that just at this time Aileen was being almost +daily harassed by additional evidence and reminders of Cowperwood's +infidelity. + +For instance, going one day to call on the Haguenins--for she was +perfectly willing to keep up the pretense of amity in so long as +they had not found out the truth--she was informed that Mrs. +Haguenin was "not at home." Shortly thereafter the Press, which +had always been favorable to Cowperwood, and which Aileen regularly +read because of its friendly comment, suddenly veered and began +to attack him. There were solemn suggestions at first that his +policy and intentions might not be in accord with the best interests +of the city. A little later Haguenin printed editorials which +referred to Cowperwood as "the wrecker," "the Philadelphia +adventurer," "a conscienceless promoter," and the like. Aileen +guessed instantly what the trouble was, but she was too disturbed +as to her own position to make any comment. She could not resolve +the threats and menaces of Cowperwood's envious world any more +than she could see her way through her own grim difficulties. + +One day, in scanning the columns of that faithful chronicle of +Chicago social doings, the Chicago Saturday Review, she came across +an item which served as a final blow. "For some time in high +social circles," the paragraph ran, "speculation has been rife as +to the amours and liaisons of a certain individual of great wealth +and pseudo social prominence, who once made a serious attempt to +enter Chicago society. It is not necessary to name the man, for +all who are acquainted with recent events in Chicago will know who +is meant. The latest rumor to affect his already nefarious reputation +relates to two women--one the daughter, and the other the wife, +of men of repute and standing in the community. In these latest +instances it is more than likely that he has arrayed influences +of the greatest importance socially and financially against himself, +for the husband in the one case and the father in the other are +men of weight and authority. The suggestion has more than once +been made that Chicago should and eventually would not tolerate +his bucaneering methods in finance and social matters; but thus +far no definite action has been taken to cast him out. The crowning +wonder of all is that the wife, who was brought here from the East, +and who--so rumor has it--made a rather scandalous sacrifice of +her own reputation and another woman's heart and home in order to +obtain the privilege of living with him, should continue so to do." + +Aileen understood perfectly what was meant. "The father" of the +so-called "one" was probably Haguenin or Cochrane, more than likely +Haguenin. "The husband of the other"--but who was the husband of +the other? She had not heard of any scandal with the wife of +anybody. It could not be the case of Rita Sohlberg and her +husband--that was too far back. It must be some new affair of +which she had not the least inkling, and so she sat and reflected. +Now, she told herself, if she received another invitation from +Lynde she would accept it. + +It was only a few days later that Aileen and Lynde met in the +gold-room of the Richelieu. Strange to relate, for one determined +to be indifferent she had spent much time in making a fetching +toilet. It being February and chill with glittering snow on the +ground, she had chosen a dark-green broadcloth gown, quite new, +with lapis-lazuli buttons that worked a "Y" pattern across her +bosom, a seal turban with an emerald plume which complemented +a sealskin jacket with immense wrought silver buttons, and bronze +shoes. To perfect it all, Aileen had fastened lapis-lazuli ear-rings +of a small flower-form in her ears, and wore a plain, heavy gold +bracelet. Lynde came up with a look of keen approval written on +his handsome brown face. "Will you let me tell you how nice you +look?" he said, sinking into the chair opposite. "You show beautiful +taste in choosing the right colors. Your ear-rings go so well +with your hair." + +Although Aileen feared because of his desperateness, she was caught +by his sleek force--that air of iron strength under a parlor mask. +His long, brown, artistic hands, hard and muscular, indicated an +idle force that might be used in many ways. They harmonized with +his teeth and chin. + +"So you came, didn't you?" he went on, looking at her steadily, +while she fronted his gaze boldly for a moment, only to look +evasively down. + +He still studied her carefully, looking at her chin and mouth and +piquant nose. In her colorful cheeks and strong arms and shoulders, +indicated by her well-tailored suit, he recognized the human vigor +he most craved in a woman. By way of diversion he ordered an +old-fashioned whisky cocktail, urging her to join him. Finding +her obdurate, he drew from his pocket a little box. + +We agreed when we played the other night on a memento, didn't we?" +he said. "A sort of souvenir? Guess?" + +Aileen looked at it a little nonplussed, recognizing the contents +of the box to be jewelry. "Oh, you shouldn't have done that," she +protested. "The understanding was that we were to win. You lost, +and that ended the bargain. I should have shared the losses. I +haven't forgiven you for that yet, you know." + +"How ungallant that would make me!" he said, smilingly, as he +trifled with the long, thin, lacquered case. "You wouldn't want +to make me ungallant, would you? Be a good fellow--a good sport, +as they say. Guess, and it's yours." + +Aileen pursed her lips at this ardent entreaty. + +"Oh, I don't mind guessing," she commented, superiorly, "though I +sha'n't take it. It might be a pin, it might be a set of ear-rings, +it might be a bracelet--" + +He made no comment, but opened it, revealing a necklace of gold +wrought into the form of a grape-vine of the most curious workmanship, +with a cluster of leaves artistically carved and arranged as a +breastpiece, the center of them formed by a black opal, which shone +with an enticing luster. Lynde knew well enough that Aileen was +familiar with many jewels, and that only one of ornate construction +and value would appeal to her sense of what was becoming to her. +He watched her face closely while she studied the details of the +necklace. + +"Isn't it exquisite!" she commented. "What a lovely opal--what +an odd design." She went over the separate leaves. "You shouldn't +be so foolish. I couldn't take it. I have too many things as it +is, and besides--" She was thinking of what she would say if +Cowperwood chanced to ask her where she got it. He was so intuitive. + +"And besides?" he queried. + +"Nothing," she replied, "except that I mustn't take it, really." +"Won't you take it as a souvenir even if--our agreement, you know." + +"Even if what?" she queried. + +"Even if nothing else comes of it. A memento, then--truly--you +know." + +He laid hold of her fingers with his cool, vigorous ones. A year +before, even six months, Aileen would have released her hand +smilingly. Now she hesitated. Why should she be so squeamish +with other men when Cowperwood was so unkind to her? + +"Tell me something," Lynde asked, noting the doubt and holding her +fingers gently but firmly, "do you care for me at all?" + +"I like you, yes. I can't say that it is anything more than that." + +She flushed, though, in spite of herself. + +He merely gazed at her with his hard, burning eyes. The materiality +that accompanies romance in so many temperaments awakened in her, +and quite put Cowperwood out of her mind for the moment. It was +an astonishing and revolutionary experience for her. She quite +burned in reply, and Lynde smiled sweetly, encouragingly. + +"Why won't you be friends with me, my sweetheart? I know you're +not happy--I can see that. Neither am I. I have a wreckless, +wretched disposition that gets me into all sorts of hell. I need +some one to care for me. Why won't you? You're just my sort. I +feel it. Do you love him so much"--he was referring to Cowperwood +--"that you can't love any one else?" + +"Oh, him!" retorted Aileen, irritably, almost disloyally. "He +doesn't care for me any more. He wouldn't mind. It isn't him." + +"Well, then, what is it? Why won't you? Am I not interesting enough? +Don't you like me? Don't you feel that I'm really suited to you?" +His hand sought hers softly. + +Aileen accepted the caress. + +"Oh, it isn't that," she replied, feelingly, running back in her +mind over her long career with Cowperwood, his former love, his +keen protestations. She had expected to make so much out of her +life with him, and here she was sitting in a public restaurant +flirting with and extracting sympathy from a comparative stranger. +It cut her to the quick for the moment and sealed her lips. Hot, +unbidden tears welled to her eyes. + +Lynde saw them. He was really very sorry for her, though her +beauty made him wish to take advantage of her distress. "Why +should you cry, dearest?" he asked, softly, looking at her flushed +cheeks and colorful eyes. "You have beauty; you are young; you're +lovely. He's not the only man in the world. Why should you be +faithful when he isn't faithful to you? This Hand affair is all +over town. When you meet some one that really would care for you, +why shouldn't you? If he doesn't want you, there are others." + +At the mention of the Hand affair Aileen straightened up. "The +Hand affair?" she asked, curiously. "What is that?" + +"Don't you know?" he replied, a little surprised. "I thought you +did, or I certainly wouldn't have mentioned it." + +"Oh, I know about what it is," replied Aileen, wisely, and with a +touch of sardonic humor. "There have been so many or the same +kind. I suppose it must be the case the Chicago Review was +referring to--the wife of the prominent financier. Has he been +trifling with Mrs. Hand?" + +"Something like that," replied Lynde. "I'm sorry that I spoke, +though? really I am. I didn't mean to be carrying tales." + +"Soldiers in a common fight, eh?" taunted Aileen, gaily. + +"Oh, not that, exactly. Please don't be mean. I'm not so bad. +It's just a principle with me. We all have our little foibles." + +"Yes, I know," replied Aileen; but her mind was running on Mrs. +Hand. So she was the latest. "Well, I admire his taste, anyway, +in this case," she said, archly. "There have been so many, though. +She is just one more. + +Lynde smiled. He himself admired Cowperwood's taste. Then he +dropped the subject. + +"But let's forget that," he said. "Please don't worry about him +any more. You can't change that. Pull yourself together." He +squeezed her fingers. "Will you?" he asked, lifting his eyebrows +in inquiry. + +"Will I what?" replied Aileen, meditatively. + +"Oh, you know. The necklace for one thing. Me, too." His eyes +coaxed and laughed and pleaded. + +Aileen smiled. "You're a bad boy," she said, evasively. This +revelation in regard to Mrs. Hand had made her singularly retaliatory +in spirit. "Let me think. Don't ask me to take the necklace +to-day. I couldn't. I couldn't wear it, anyhow. Let me see you +another time." She moved her plump hand in an uncertain way, and +he smoothed her wrist. + +"I wonder if you wouldn't like to go around to the studio of a +friend of mine here in the tower?" he asked, quite nonchalantly. +"He has such a charming collection of landscapes. You're interested +in pictures, I know. Your husband has some of the finest." + +Instantly Aileen understood what was meant--quite by instinct. +The alleged studio must be private bachelor quarters. + +"Not this afternoon," she replied, quite wrought up and disturbed. +"Not to-day. Another time. And I must be going now. But I will +see you." + +"And this?" he asked, picking up the necklace. + +"You keep it until I do come," she replied. "I may take it then." + +She relaxed a little, pleased that she was getting safely away; +but her mood was anything but antagonistic, and her spirits were +as shredded as wind-whipped clouds. It was time she wanted--a +little time--that was all. + + + + +Chapter XXXIV + + + +Enter Hosmer Hand + +It is needless to say that the solemn rage of Hand, to say nothing +of the pathetic anger of Haguenin, coupled with the wrath of Redmond +Purdy, who related to all his sad story, and of young MacDonald +and his associates of the Chicago General Company, constituted an +atmosphere highly charged with possibilities and potent for dramatic +results. The most serious element in this at present was Hosmer +Hand, who, being exceedingly wealthy and a director in a number +of the principal mercantile and financial institutions of the city, +was in a position to do Cowperwood some real financial harm. Hand +had been extremely fond of his young wife. Being a man of but few +experiences with women, it astonished and enraged him that a man +like Cowperwood should dare to venture on his preserves in this +reckless way, should take his dignity so lightly. He burned now +with a hot, slow fire of revenge. + +Those who know anything concerning the financial world and its +great adventures know how precious is that reputation for probity, +solidarity, and conservatism on which so many of the successful +enterprises of the world are based. If men are not absolutely +honest themselves they at least wish for and have faith in the +honesty of others. No set of men know more about each other, +garner more carefully all the straws of rumor which may affect the +financial and social well being of an individual one way or another, +keep a tighter mouth concerning their own affairs and a sharper +eye on that of their neighbors. Cowperwood's credit had hitherto +been good because it was known that he had a "soft thing" in the +Chicago street-railway field, that he paid his interest charges +promptly, that he had organized the group of men who now, under +him, controlled the Chicago Trust Company and the North and West +Chicago Street Railways, and that the Lake City Bank, of which +Addison was still president, considered his collateral sound. +Nevertheless, even previous to this time there had been a protesting +element in the shape of Schryhart, Simms, and others of considerable +import in the Douglas Trust, who had lost no chance to say to one +and all that Cowperwood was an interloper, and that his course was +marked by political and social trickery and chicanery, if not by +financial dishonesty. As a matter of fact, Schryhart, who had +once been a director of the Lake City National along with Hand, +Arneel, and others, had resigned and withdrawn all his deposits +sometime before because he found, as he declared, that Addison was +favoring Cowperwood and the Chicago Trust Company with loans, when +there was no need of so doing--when it was not essentially +advantageous for the bank so to do. Both Arneel and Hand, having +at this time no personal quarrel with Cowperwood on any score, had +considered this protest as biased. Addison had maintained that +the loans were neither unduly large nor out of proportion to the +general loans of the bank. The collateral offered was excellent. +"I don't want to quarrel with Schryhart," Addison had protested +at the time; "but I am afraid his charge is unfair. He is trying +to vent a private grudge through the Lake National. That is not +the way nor this the place to do it." + +Both Hand and Arneel, sober men both, agreed with this--admiring +Addison--and so the case stood. Schryhart, however, frequently +intimated to them both that Cowperwood was merely building up the +Chicago Trust Company at the expense of the Lake City National, +in order to make the former strong enough to do without any aid, +at which time Addison would resign and the Lake City would be +allowed to shift for itself. Hand had never acted on this suggestion +but he had thought. + +It was not until the incidents relating to Cowperwood and Mrs. +Hand had come to light that things financial and otherwise began +to darken up. Hand, being greatly hurt in his pride, contemplated +only severe reprisal. Meeting Schryhart at a directors' meeting +one day not long after his difficulty had come upon him, he remarked: + +"I thought a few years ago, Norman, when you talked to me about +this man Cowperwood that you were merely jealous--a dissatisfied +business rival. Recently a few things have come to my notice which +cause me to think differently. It is very plain to me now that +the man is thoroughly bad--from the crown of his head to the soles +of his feet. It's a pity the city has to endure him." + +"So you're just beginning to find that out, are you, Hosmer?" +answered Schryhart. "Well, I'll not say I told you so. Perhaps +you'll agree with me now that the responsible people of Chicago +ought to do something about it." + +Hand, a very heavy, taciturn man, merely looked at him. "I'll be +ready enough to do," he said, "when I see how and what's to be +done." + +A little later Schryhart, meeting Duane Kingsland, learned the +true source of Hand's feeling against Cowperwood, and was not slow +in transferring this titbit to Merrill, Simms, and others. Merrill, +who, though Cowperwood had refused to extend his La Salle Street +tunnel loop about State Street and his store, had hitherto always +liked him after a fashion--remotely admired his courage and +daring--was now appropriately shocked. + +"Why, Anson," observed Schryhart, "the man is no good. He has the +heart of a hyena and the friendliness of a scorpion. You heard +how he treated Hand, didn't you?" + +"No," replied Merrill, "I didn't." + +"Well, it's this way, so I hear." And Schryhart leaned over and +confidentially communicated considerable information into Mr. +Merrill's left ear. + +The latter raised his eyebrows. "Indeed!" he said. + +"And the way he came to meet her," added Schryhart, contemptuously, +"was this. He went to Hand originally to borrow two hundred and +fifty thousand dollars on West Chicago Street Railway. Angry? The +word is no name for it." + +"You don't say so," commented Merrill, dryly, though privately +interested and fascinated, for Mrs. Hand had always seemed very +attractive to him. "I don't wonder." + +He recalled that his own wife had recently insisted on inviting +Cowperwood once. + +Similarly Hand, meeting Arneel not so long afterward, confided to +him that Cowperwood was trying to repudiate a sacred agreement. +Arneel was grieved and surprised. It was enough for him to know +that Hand had been seriously injured. Between the two of them +they now decided to indicate to Addison, as president of the Lake +City Bank, that all relations with Cowperwood and the Chicago Trust +Company must cease. The result of this was, not long after, that +Addison, very suave and gracious, agreed to give Cowperwood due +warning that all his loans would have to be taken care of and then +resigned--to become, seven months later, president of the Chicago +Trust Company. This desertion created a great stir at the time, +astonishing the very men who had suspected that it might come to +pass. The papers were full of it. + +"Well, let him go," observed Arneel to Hand, sourly, on the day +that Addison notified the board of directors of the Lake City of +his contemplated resignation. "If he wants to sever his connection +with a bank like this to go with a man like that, it's his own +lookout. He may live to regret it." + +It so happened that by now another election was pending Chicago, +and Hand, along with Schryhart and Arneel--who joined their forces +because of his friendship for Hand--decided to try to fight +Cowperwood through this means. + +Hosmer Hand, feeling that he had the burden of a great duty upon +him, was not slow in acting. He was always, when aroused, a +determined and able fighter. Needing an able lieutenant in the +impending political conflict, he finally bethought himself of a +man who had recently come to figure somewhat conspicuously in +Chicago politics--one Patrick Gilgan, the same Patrick Gilgan of +Cowperwood's old Hyde Park gas-war days. Mr. Gilgan was now a +comparatively well-to-do man. Owing to a genial capacity for +mixing with people, a close mouth, and absolutely no understanding +of, and consequently no conscience in matters of large public +import (in so far as they related to the so-called rights of the +mass), he was a fit individual to succeed politically. His saloon +was the finest in all Wentworth Avenue. It fairly glittered with +the newly introduced incandescent lamp reflected in a perfect world +of beveled and faceted mirrors. His ward, or district, was full +of low, rain-beaten cottages crowded together along half-made +streets; but Patrick Gilgan was now a state senator, slated for +Congress at the next Congressional election, and a possible successor +of the Hon. John J. McKenty as dictator of the city, if only the +Republican party should come into power. (Hyde Park, before it +had been annexed to the city, had always been Republican, and since +then, although the larger city was normally Democratic, Gilgan +could not conveniently change.) Hearing from the political discussion +which preceded the election that Gilgan was by far the most powerful +politician on the South Side, Hand sent for him. Personally, Hand +had far less sympathy with the polite moralistic efforts of men +like Haguenin, Hyssop, and others, who were content to preach +morality and strive to win by the efforts of the unco good, than +he had with the cold political logic of a man like Cowperwood +himself. If Cowperwood could work through McKenty to such a +powerful end, he, Hand, could find some one else who could be made +as powerful as McKenty. + +"Mr. Gilgan," said Hand, when the Irishman came in, medium tall, +beefy, with shrewd, twinkling gray eyes and hairy hands, "you don't +know me--" + +"I know of you well enough," smiled the Irishman, with a soft +brogue. "You don't need an introduction to talk to me." + +"Very good," replied Hand, extending his hand. "I know of you, +too. Then we can talk. It's the political situation here in +Chicago I'd like to discuss with you. I'm not a politician myself, +but I take some interest in what's going on. I want to know what +you think will be the probable outcome of the present situation +here in the city." + +Gilgan, having no reason for laying his private political convictions +bare to any one whose motive he did not know, merely replied: "Oh, +I think the Republicans may have a pretty good show. They have +all but one or two of the papers with them, I see. I don't know +much outside of what I read and hear people talk." + +Mr. Hand knew that Gilgan was sparring, and was glad to find his +man canny and calculating. + +"I haven't asked you to come here just to be talking over politics +in general, as you may imagine, Mr. Gilgan. I want to put a +particular problem before you. Do you happen to know either Mr. +McKenty or Mr. Cowperwood?" + +"I never met either of them to talk to," replied Gilgan. "I know +Mr. McKenty by sight, and I've seen Mr. Cowperwood once." He said +no more. + +"Well," said Mr. Hand, "suppose a group of influential men here +in Chicago were to get together and guarantee sufficient funds for +a city-wide campaign; now, if you had the complete support of the +newspapers and the Republican organization in the bargain, could +you organize the opposition here so that the Democratic party could +be beaten this fall? I'm not talking about the mayor merely and +the principal city officers, but the council, too--the aldermen. +I want to fix things so that the McKenty-Cowperwood crowd couldn't +get an alderman or a city official to sell out, once they are +elected. I want the Democratic party beaten so thoroughly that +there won't be any question in anybody's mind as to the fact that +it has been done. There will be plenty of money forthcoming if +you can prove to me, or, rather, to the group of men I am thinking +of, that the thing can be done." + +Mr. Gilgan blinked his eyes solemnly. He rubbed his knees, put +his thumbs in the armholes of his vest, took out a cigar, lit it, +and gazed poetically at the ceiling. He was thinking very, very +hard. Mr. Cowperwood and Mr. McKenty, as he knew, were very +powerful men. He had always managed to down the McKenty opposition +in his ward, and several others adjacent to it, and in the Eighteenth +Senatorial District, which he represented. But to be called upon +to defeat him in Chicago, that was different. Still, the thought +of a large amount of cash to be distributed through him, and the +chance of wresting the city leadership from McKenty by the aid of +the so-called moral forces of the city, was very inspiring. Mr. +Gilgan was a good politician. He loved to scheme and plot and +make deals--as much for the fun of it as anything else. Just now +he drew a solemn face, which, however, concealed a very light heart. + +"I have heard," went on Hand, "that you have built up a strong +organization in your ward and district." + +"I've managed to hold me own," suggested Gilgan, archly. "But +this winning all over Chicago," he went on, after a moment, "now, +that's a pretty large order. There are thirty-one wards in Chicago +this election, and all but eight of them are nominally Democratic. +I know most of the men that are in them now, and some of them are +pretty shrewd men, too. This man Dowling in council is nobody's +fool, let me tell you that. Then there's Duvanicki and Ungerich +and Tiernan and Kerrigan--all good men." He mentioned four of the +most powerful and crooked aldermen in the city. "You see, Mr. +Hand, the way things are now the Democrats have the offices, and +the small jobs to give out. That gives them plenty of political +workers to begin with. Then they have the privilege of collecting +money from those in office to help elect themselves. That's another +great privilege." He smiled. "Then this man Cowperwood employs +all of ten thousand men at present, and any ward boss that's +favorable to him can send a man out of work to him and he'll find +a place for him. That's a gre-a-eat help in building up a party +following. Then there's the money a man like Cowperwood and others +can contribute at election time. Say what you will, Mr. Hand, but +it's the two, and five, and ten dollar bills paid out at the last +moment over the saloon bars and at the polling-places that do the +work. Give me enough money"--and at this noble thought Mr. Gilgan +straightened up and slapped one fist lightly in the other, adjusting +at the same time his half-burned cigar so that it should not burn +his hand--"and I can carry every ward in Chicago, bar none. If I +have money enough," he repeated, emphasizing the last two words. +He put his cigar back in his mouth, blinked his eyes defiantly, +and leaned back in his chair. + +"Very good," commented Hand, simply; "but how much money?" + +"Ah, that's another question," replied Gilgan, straightening up +once more. "Some wards require more than others. Counting out +the eight that are normally Republican as safe, you would have to +carry eighteen others to have a majority in council. I don't see +how anything under ten to fifteen thousand dollars to a ward would +be safe to go on. I should say three hundred thousand dollars +would be safer, and that wouldn't be any too much by any means." + +Mr. Gilgan restored his cigar and puffed heavily the while he +leaned back and lifted his eyes once more. + +"And how would that money be distributed exactly?" inquired Mr. +Hand. + +"Oh, well, it's never wise to look into such matters too closely," +commented Mr. Gilgan, comfortably. "There's such a thing as cutting +your cloth too close in politics. There are ward captains, leaders, +block captains, workers. They all have to have money to do with +--to work up sentiment--and you can't be too inquiring as to just +how they do it. It's spent in saloons, and buying coal for mother, +and getting Johnnie a new suit here and there. Then there are +torch-light processions and club-rooms and jobs to look after. +Sure, there's plenty of places for it. Some men may have to be +brought into these wards to live--kept in boarding-houses for a +week or ten days." He waved a hand deprecatingly. + +Mr. Hand, who had never busied himself with the minutiae of politics, +opened his eyes slightly. This colonizing idea was a little +liberal, he thought. + +"Who distributes this money?" he asked, finally. + +"Nominally, the Republican County Committee, if it's in charge; +actually, the man or men who are leading the fight. In the case +of the Democratic party it's John J. McKenty, and don't you forget +it. In my district it's me. and no one else." + +Mr. Hand, slow, solid, almost obtuse at times, meditated under +lowering brows. He had always been associated with a more or less +silk-stocking crew who were unused to the rough usage of back-room +saloon politics, yet every one suspected vaguely, of course, at +times that ballot-boxes were stuffed and ward lodging-houses +colonized. Every one (at least every one of any worldly intelligence) +knew that political capital was collected from office-seekers, +office-holders, beneficiaries of all sorts and conditions under +the reigning city administration. Mr. Hand had himself contributed +to the Republican party for favors received or about to be. As a +man who had been compelled to handle large affairs in a large way +he was not inclined to quarrel with this. Three hundred thousand +dollars was a large sum, and he was not inclined to subscribe it +alone, but fancied that at his recommendation and with his advice +it could be raised. Was Gilgan the man to fight Cowperwood? He +looked him over and decided--other things being equal--that he was. +And forthwith the bargain was struck. Gilgan, as a Republican +central committeeman--chairman, possibly--was to visit every ward, +connect up with every available Republican force, pick strong, +suitable anti-Cowperwood candidates, and try to elect them, while +he, Hand, organized the money element and collected the necessary +cash. Gilgan was to be given money personally. He was to have +the undivided if secret support of all the high Republican elements +in the city. His business was to win at almost any cost. And as +a reward he was to have the Republican support for Congress, or, +failing that, the practical Republican leadership in city and county. + +"Anyhow," said Hand, after Mr. Gilgan finally took his departure, +"things won't be so easy for Mr. Cowperwood in the future as they +were in the past. And when it comes to getting his franchises +renewed, if I'm alive, we'll see whether he will or not." + +The heavy financier actually growled a low growl as he spoke out +loud to himself. He felt a boundless rancor toward the man who +had, as he supposed, alienated the affections of his smart young +wife. + + + + +Chapter XXXV + + + +A Political Agreement + +In the first and second wards of Chicago at this time--wards +including the business heart, South Clark Street, the water-front, +the river-levee, and the like--were two men, Michael (alias Smiling +Mike) Tiernan and Patrick (alias Emerald Pat) Kerrigan, who, for +picturequeness of character and sordidness of atmosphere, could +not be equaled elsewhere in the city, if in the nation at large. +"Smiling" Mike Tiernan, proud possessor of four of the largest and +filthiest saloons of this area, was a man of large and genial +mold--perhaps six feet one inch in height, broad-shouldered in +proportion, with a bovine head, bullet-shaped from one angle, and +big, healthy, hairy hands and large feet. He had done many things +from digging in a ditch to occupying a seat in the city council +from this his beloved ward, which he sold out regularly for one +purpose and another; but his chief present joy consisted in sitting +behind a solid mahogany railing at a rosewood desk in the back +portion of his largest Clark Street hostelry--"The Silver Moon." +Here he counted up the returns from his various properties--salons, +gambling resorts, and houses of prostitution--which he manipulated +with the connivance or blinking courtesy of the present +administration, and listened to the pleas and demands of his +henchmen and tenants. + +The character of Mr. Kerrigan, Mr. Tiernan's only rival in this +rather difficult and sordid region, was somewhat different. He +was a small man, quite dapper, with a lean, hollow, and somewhat +haggard face, but by no means sickly body, a large, strident +mustache, a wealth of coal-black hair parted slickly on one side, +and a shrewd, genial brown-black eye--constituting altogether a +rather pleasing and ornate figure whom it was not at all unsatisfactory +to meet. His ears were large and stood out bat-wise from his +head; and his eyes gleamed with a smart, evasive light. He was +cleverer financially than Tiernan, richer, and no more than +thirty-five, whereas Mr. Tiernan was forty-five years of age. +Like Mr. Tiernan in the first ward, Mr. Kerrigan was a power in +the second, and controlled a most useful and dangerous floating +vote. His saloons harbored the largest floating element that was +to be found in the city--longshoremen, railroad hands, stevedores, +tramps, thugs, thieves, pimps, rounders, detectives, and the like. +He was very vain, considered himself handsome, a "killer" with the +ladies. Married, and with two children and a sedate young wife, +he still had his mistress, who changed from year to year, and his +intermediate girls. His clothes were altogether noteworthy, but +it was his pride to eschew jewelry, except for one enormous emerald, +value fourteen thousand dollars, which he wore in his necktie on +occasions, and the wonder of which, pervading all Dearborn Street +and the city council, had won him the soubriquet of "Emerald Pat." +At first he rejoiced heartily in this title, as he did in a gold +and diamond medal awarded him by a Chicago brewery for selling the +largest number of barrels of beer of any saloon in Chicago. More +recently, the newspapers having begun to pay humorous attention to +both himself and Mr. Tiernan, because of their prosperity and +individuality, he resented it. + +The relation of these two men to the present political situation +was peculiar, and, as it turned out, was to constitute the weak +spot in the Cowperwood-McKenty campaign. Tiernan and Kerrigan, +to begin with, being neighhors and friends, worked together in +politics and business, on occasions pooling their issues and doing +each other favors. The enterprises in which they were engaged +being low and shabby, they needed counsel and consolation. +Infinitely beneath a man like McKenty in understanding and a politic +grasp of life, they were, nevertheless, as they prospered, somewhat +jealous of him and his high estate. They saw with speculative and +somewhat jealous eyes how, after his union with Cowperwood, he +grew and how he managed to work his will in many ways--by extracting +tolls from the police department, and heavy annual campaign +contributions from manufacturers favored by the city gas and water +departments. McKenty--a born manipulator in this respect--knew +where political funds were to be had in an hour of emergency, and +he did not hesitate to demand them. Tiernan and Kerrigan had +always been fairly treated by him as politics go; but they had +never as yet been included in his inner council of plotters. When +he was down-town on one errand or another, he stopped in at their +places to shake hands with them, to inquire after business, to +ask if there was any favor he could do them; but never did he +stoop to ask a favor of them or personally to promise any form of +reward. That was the business of Dowling and others through whom +he worked. + +Naturally men of strong, restive, animal disposition, finding no +complete outlet for all their growing capacity, Tiernan and Kerrigan +were both curious to see in what way they could add to their honors +and emoluments. Their wards, more than any in the city, were +increasing in what might be called a vote-piling capacity, the +honest, legitimate vote not being so large, but the opportunities +afforded for colonizing, repeating, and ballot-box stuffing being +immense. In a doubtful mayoralty campaign the first and second +wards alone, coupled with a portion of the third adjoining them, +would register sufficient illegitimate votes (after voting-hours, +if necessary) to completely change the complexion of the city as +to the general officers nominated. Large amounts of money were +sent to Tiernan and Kerrigan around election time by the Democratic +County Committee to be disposed of as they saw fit. They merely +sent in a rough estimate of how much they would need, and always +received a little more than they asked for. They never made nor +were asked to make accounting afterward. Tiernan would receive +as high as fifteen and eighteen, Kerrigan sometimes as much as +twenty to twenty-five thousand dollars, his being the pivotal ward +under such circumstances. + +McKenty had recently begun to recognize that these two men would +soon have to be given fuller consideration, for they were becoming +more or less influential. But how? Their personalities, let alone +the reputation of their wards and the methods they employed, were +not such as to command public confidence. In the mean time, owing +to the tremendous growth of the city, the growth of their own +private business, and the amount of ballot-box stuffing, repeating, +and the like which was required of them, they were growing more +and more restless. Why should not they be slated for higher +offices? they now frequently asked themselves. Tiernan would have +been delighted to have been nominated for sheriff or city treasurer. +He considered himself eminently qualified. Kerrigan at the last +city convention had privately urged on Dowling the wisdom of +nominating him for the position of commissioner of highways and +sewers, which office he was anxious to obtain because of its reported +commercial perquisites; but this year, of all times, owing to +the need of nominating an unblemished ticket to defeat the sharp +Republican opposition, such a nomination was not possible. It +would have drawn the fire of all the respectable elements in the +city. As a result both Tiernan and Kerrigan, thinking over their +services, past and future, felt very much disgruntled. They were +really not large enough mentally to understand how dangerous +--outside of certain fields of activity--they were to the party. + +After his conference with Hand, Gilgan, going about the city with +the promise of ready cash on his lips, was able to arouse considerable +enthusiasm for the Republican cause. In the wards and sections +where the so-called "better element" prevailed it seemed probable, +because of the heavy moral teaching of the newspapers, that the +respectable vote would array itself almost solidly this time against +Cowperwood. In the poorer wards it would not be so easy. True, +it was possible, by a sufficient outlay of cash, to find certain +hardy bucaneers who could be induced to knife their own brothers, +but the result was not certain. Having heard through one person +and another of the disgruntled mood of both Kerrigan and Tiernan, +and recognizing himself, even if he was a Republican, to be a man +much more of their own stripe than either McKenty or Dowling, +Gilgan decided to visit that lusty pair and see what could be done +by way of alienating them from the present center of power. + +After due reflection he first sought out "Emerald Pat" Kerrigan, +whom he knew personally but with whom he was by no means intimate +politically, at his "Emporium Bar" in Dearborn Street. This +particular saloon, a feature of political Chicago at this time, +was a large affair containing among other marvelous saloon fixtures +a circular bar of cherry wood twelve feet in diameter, which glowed +as a small mountain with the customary plain and colored glasses, +bottles, labels, and mirrors. The floor was a composition of +small, shaded red-and-green marbles; the ceiling a daub of pinky, +fleshy nudes floating among diaphanous clouds; the walls were +alternate panels of cerise and brown set in rosewood. Mr. Kerrigan, +when other duties were not pressing, was usually to be found +standing chatting with several friends and surveying the wonders +of his bar trade, which was very large. On the day of Mr. Gilgan's +call he was resplendent in a dark-brown suit with a fine red +stripe in it, Cordovan leather shoes, a wine-colored tie ornamented +with the emerald of so much renown, and a straw hat of flaring +proportions and novel weave. About his waist, in lieu of a +waistcoat, was fastened one of the eccentricities of the day, a +manufactured silk sash. He formed an interesting contrast with +Mr. Gilgan, who now came up very moist, pink, and warm, in a fine, +light tweed of creamy, showy texture, straw hat, and yellow shoes. + +"How are you, Kerrigan?" he observed, genially, there being no +political enmity between them. "How's the first, and how's trade? +I see you haven't lost the emerald yet?" + +"No. No danger of that. Oh, trade's all right. And so's the +first. How's Mr. Gilgan?" Kerrigan extended his hand cordially. + +"I have a word to say to you. Have you any time to spare?" + +For answer Mr. Kerrigan led the way into the back room. Already +he had heard rumors of a strong Republican opposition at the coming +election. + +Mr. Gilgan sat down. "It's about things this fall I've come to +see you, of course," he began, smilingly. "You and I are supposed +to be on opposite sides of the fence, and we are as a rule, but I +am wondering whether we need be this time or not?" + +Mr. Kerrigan, shrewd though seemingly simple, fixed him with an +amiable eye. "What's your scheme?" he said. "I'm always open to +a good idea." + +"Well, it's just this," began Mr. Gilgan, feeling his way. "You +have a fine big ward here that you carry in your vest pocket, and +so has Tiernan, as we all know; and we all know, too, that if it +wasn't for what you and him can do there wouldn't always be a +Democratic mayor elected. Now, I have an idea, from looking into +the thing, that neither you nor Tiernan have got as much out of +it so far as you might have." + +Mr. Kerrigan was too cautious to comment as to that, though Mr. +Gilgan paused for a moment. + +"Now, I have a plan, as I say, and you can take it or leave it, +just as you want, and no hard feelings one way or the other. I +think the Republicans are going to win this fall--McKenty or no +McKenty--first, second, and third wards with us or not, as they +choose. The doings of the big fellow"--he was referring to +McKenty--"with the other fellow in North Clark Street"--Mr. Gilgan +preferred to be a little enigmatic at times--"are very much in the +wind just now. You see how the papers stand. I happen to know +where there's any quantity of money coming into the game from big +financial quarters who have no use for this railroad man. It's a +solid La Salle and Dearborn Street line-up, so far as I can see. +Why, I don't know. But so it is. Maybe you know better than I +do. Anyhow, that's the way it stands now. Add to that the fact +that there are eight naturally Republican wards as it is, and ten +more where there is always a fighting chance, and you begin to see +what I'm driving at. Count out these last ten, though, and bet +only on the eight that are sure to stand. That leaves twenty-three +wards that we Republicans always conceded to you people; but if +we manage to carry thirteen of them along with the eight I'm talking +about, we'll have a majority in council, and"--flick! he snapped +his fingers--"out you go--you, McKenty, Cowperwood, and all the +rest. No more franchises, no more street-paving contracts, no +more gas deals. Nothing--for two years, anyhow, and maybe longer. +If we win we'll take the jobs and the fat deals." He paused and +surveyed Kerrigan cheerfully but defiantly. + +"Now, I've just been all over the city," he continued, "in every +ward and precinct, so I know something of what I am talking about. +I have the men and the cash to put up a fight all along the line +this time. This fall we win--me and the big fellows over there +in La Salle Street, and all the Republicans or Democrats or +Prohibitionists, or whoever else comes in with us--do you get me? +We're going to put up the biggest political fight Chicago has ever +seen. I'm not naming any names just yet, but when the time comes +you'll see. Now, what I want to ask of you is this, and I'll not +mince me words nor beat around the bush. Will you and Tiernan +come in with me and Edstrom to take over the city and run it during +the next two years? If you will, we can win hands down. It will +be a case of share and share alike on everything--police, gas, +water, highways, street-railways, everything--or we'll divide +beforehand and put it down in black and white. I know that you +and Tiernan work together, or I wouldn't talk about this. Edstrom +has the Swedes where he wants them, and he'll poll twenty thousand +of them this fall. There's Ungerich with his Germans; one of us +might make a deal with him afterward, give him most any office he +wants. If we win this time we can hold the city for six or eight +years anyhow, most likely, and after that--well, there's no use +lookin' too far in the future--Anyhow we'd have a majority of the +council and carry the mayor along with it." + +"If--" commented Mr. Kerrigan, dryly. + +"If," replied Mr. Gilgan, sententiously. "You're very right. +There's a big 'if' in there, I'll admit. But if these two +wards--yours and Tiernan's--could by any chance be carried for the +Republicans they'd be equal to any four or five of the others." + +"Very true," replied Mr. Kerrigan, "if they could be carried for +the Republicans. But they can't be. What do you want me to do, +anyhow? Lose me seat in council and be run out of the Democratic +party? What's your game? You don't take me for a plain damn fool, +do you?" + +"Sorry the man that ever took 'Emerald Pat' for that," answered +Gilgan, with honeyed compliment. "I never would. But no one is +askin' ye to lose your seat in council and be run out of the +Democratic party. What's to hinder you from electin' yourself and +droppin' the rest of the ticket?" He had almost said "knifing." + +Mr. Kerrigan smiled. In spite of all his previous dissatisfaction +with the Chicago situation he had not thought of Mr. Gilgan's talk +as leading to this. It was an interesting idea. He had "knifed" +people before--here and there a particular candidate whom it was +desirable to undo. If the Democratic party was in any danger of +losing this fall, and if Gilgan was honest in his desire to divide +and control, it might not be such a bad thing. Neither Cowperwood, +McKenty, nor Dowling had ever favored him in any particular way. +If they lost through him, and he could still keep himself in power, +they would have to make terms with him. There was no chance of +their running him out. Why shouldn't he knife the ticket? It was +worth thinking over, to say the least. + +"That's all very fine," he observed, dryly, after his meditations +had run their course; "but how do I know that you wouldn't turn +around and 'welch' on the agreement afterward?" (Mr. Gilgan stirred +irritably at the suggestion.) "Dave Morrissey came to me four years +ago to help him out, and a lot of satisfaction I got afterward." +Kerrigan was referring to a man whom he had helped make county +clerk, and who had turned on him when he asked for return favors +and his support for the office of commissioner of highways. +Morrissey had become a prominent politician. + +"That's very easy to say," replied Gilgan, irritably, "but it's +not true of me. Ask any man in my district. Ask the men who know +me. I'll put my part of the bargain in black and white if you'll +put yours. If I don't make good, show me up afterward. I'll take +you to the people that are backing me. I'll show you the money. +I've got the goods this time. What do you stand to lose, anyhow? +They can't run you out for cutting the ticket. They can't prove +it. We'll bring police in here to make it look like a fair vote. +I'll put up as much money as they will to carry this district, and +more." + +Mr. Kerrigan suddenly saw a grand coup here. He could "draw down" +from the Democrats, as he would have expressed it, twenty to +twenty-five thousand dollars to do the dirty work here. Gilgan +would furnish him as much and more--the situation being so critical. +Perhaps fifteen or eighteen thousand would be necessary to poll +the number of votes required either way. At the last hour, before +stuffing the boxes, he would learn how the city was going. If it +looked favorable for the Republicans it would be easy to complete +the victory and complain that his lieutenants had been suborned. +If it looked certain for the Democrats he could throw Gilgan and +pocket his funds. In either case he would be "in" twenty-five to +thirty thousand dollars, and he would still be councilman. + +"All very fine," replied Mr. Kerrigan, pretending a dullness which +he did not feel; "but it's damned ticklish business at best. I +don't know that I want anything to do with it even if we could +win. It's true the City Hall crowd have never played into my hands +very much; but this is a Democratic district, and I'm a Democrat. +If it ever got out that I had thrown the party it would be pretty +near all day with me. + +"I'm a man of my word," declared Mr. Gilgan, emphatically, getting +up. "I never threw a man or a bet in my life. Look at me record +in the eighteenth. Did you ever hear any one say that I had?" + +"No, I never did," returned Kerrigan, mildly. "But it's a pretty +large thing you're proposing, Mr. Gilgan. I wouldn't want to say +what I thought about it offhand. This ward is supposed to be +Democratic. It couldn't be swung over into the Republican column +without a good bit of fuss being made about it. You'd better see +Mr. Tiernan first and hear what he has to say. Afterward I might +be willing to talk about it further. Not now, though--not now." + +Mr. Gilgan went away quite jauntily and cheerfully. He was not +at all downcast. + + + +Chapter XXXVI + + + +An Election Draws Near + +Subsequently Mr. Kerrigan called on Mr. Tiernan casually. Mr. +Tiernan returned the call. A little later Messrs. Tiernan, +Kerrigan, and Gilgan, in a parlor-room in a small hotel in Milwaukee +(in order not to be seen together), conferred. Finally Messrs. +Tiernan, Edstrom, Kerrigan, and Gilgan met and mapped out a programme +of division far too intricate to be indicated here. Needless to +say, it involved the division of chief clerks, pro rata, of police +graft, of gambling and bawdy-house perquisites, of returns from +gas, street-railway, and other organizations. It was sealed with +many solemn promises. If it could be made effective this quadrumvirate +was to endure for years. Judges, small magistrates, officers large +and small, the shrievalty, the water office, the tax office, all +were to come within its purview. It was a fine, handsome political +dream, and as such worthy of every courtesy and consideration but +it was only a political dream in its ultimate aspects, and as such +impressed the participants themselves at times. + +The campaign was now in full blast. The summer and fall (September +and October) went by to the tune of Democratic and Republican +marching club bands, to the sound of lusty political voices orating +in parks, at street-corners, in wooden "wigwams," halls, tents, +and parlors--wherever a meager handful of listeners could be +drummed up and made by any device to keep still. The newspapers +honked and bellowed, as is the way with those profit-appointed +advocates and guardians of "right" and "justice. Cowperwood and +McKenty were denounced from nearly every street-corner in Chicago. +Wagons and sign-boards on wheels were hauled about labeled "Break +the partnership between the street-railway corporations and the +city council." "Do you want more streets stolen?" "Do you want +Cowperwood to own Chicago?" Cowperwood himself, coming down-town +of a morning or driving home of an evening, saw these things. He +saw the huge signs, listened to speeches denouncing himself, and +smiled. By now he was quite aware as to whence this powerful +uprising had sprung. Hand was back of it, he knew--for so McKenty +and Addison had quickly discovered--and with Hand was Schryhart, +Arneel, Merrill, the Douglas Trust Company, the various editors, +young Truman Leslie MacDonald, the old gas crowd, the Chicago +General Company--all. He even suspected that certain aldermen +might possibly be suborned to desert him, though all professed +loyalty. McKenty, Addison, Videra, and himself were planning the +details of their defenses as carefully and effectively as possible. +Cowperwood was fully alive to the fact that if he lost this +election--the first to be vigorously contested--it might involve +a serious chain of events; but he did not propose to be unduly +disturbed, since he could always fight in the courts by money, and +by preferment in the council, and with the mayor and the city +attorney. "There is more than one way to kill a cat," was one of +his pet expressions, and it expressed his logic and courage exactly. +Yet he did not wish to lose. + +One of the amusing features of the campaign was that the McKenty +orators had been instructed to shout as loudly for reforms as the +Republicans, only instead of assailing Cowperwood and McKenty they +were to point out that Schryhart's Chicago City Railway was far +more rapacious, and that this was a scheme to give it a blanket +franchise of all streets not yet covered by either the Cowperwood +or the Schryhart-Hand-Arneel lines. It was a pretty argument. +The Democrats could point with pride to a uniformly liberal +interpretation of some trying Sunday laws, whereby under Republican +and reform administrations it had been occasionally difficult for +the honest working-man to get his glass or pail of beer on Sunday. +On the other hand it was possible for the Republican orators to +show how "the low dives and gin-mills" were everywhere being +operated in favor of McKenty, and that under the highly respectable +administration of the Republican candidate for mayor this partnership +between the city government and vice and crime would be nullified. + +"If I am elected," declared the Honorable Chaffee Thayer Sluss, +the Republican candidate, "neither Frank Cowperwood nor John McKenty +will dare to show his face in the City Hall unless he comes with +clean hands and an honest purpose. + +"Hooray!" yelled the crowd. + +"I know that ass," commented Addison, when he read this in the +Transcript. "He used to be a clerk in the Douglas Trust Company. +He's made a little money recently in the paper business. He's a +mere tool for the Arneel-Schryhart interests. He hasn't the courage +of a two-inch fish-worm." + +When McKenty read it he simply observed: "There are other ways of +going to City Hall than by going yourself." He was depending upon +a councilmanic majority at least. + +However, in the midst of this uproar the goings to and fro of +Gilgan, Edstrom, Kerrigan, and Tiernan were nor fully grasped. A +more urbanely shifty pair than these latter were never seen. While +fraternizing secretly with both Gilgan and Edstrom, laying out +their political programme most neatly, they were at the same time +conferring with Dowling, Duvanicki, even McKenty himself. Seeing +that the outcome was, for some reason--he could scarcely see why +--looking very uncertain, McKenty one day asked the two of them +to come to see him. On getting the letter Mr. Tiernan strolled +over to Mr. Kerrigan's place to see whether he also had received +a message. + +"Sure, sure! I did!" replied Mr. Kerrigan, gaily. "Here it is now +in me outside coat pocket. 'Dear Mr. Kerrigan,"' he read, "'won't +you do me the favor to come over to-morrow evening at seven and +dine with me? Mr. Ungerich, Mr. Duvanicki, and several others will +very likely drop in afterward. I have asked Mr. Tiernan to come +at the same time. Sincerely, John J. McKenty.' That's the way +he does it," added Mr. Kerrigan; "just like that. + +He kissed the letter mockingly and put it back into his pocket. + +"Sure I got one, jist the same way. The very same langwidge, +nearly," commented Mr. Tiernan, sweetly. "He's beginning to wake +up, eh? What! The little old first and second are beginning to +look purty big just now, eh? What!" + +"Tush!" observed Mr. Kerrigan to Mr. Tiernan, with a marked sardonic +emphasis, "that combination won't last forever. They've been +getting too big for their pants, I'm thinking. Well, it's a long +road, eh? It's pretty near time, what?" + +"You're right," responded Mr. Tiernan, feelingly. "It is a long +road. These are the two big wards of the city, and everybody knows +it. If we turn on them at the last moment where will they be, eh?" + +He put a fat finger alongside of his heavy reddish nose and looked +at Mr. Kerrigan out of squinted eyes. + +"You're damned right," replied the little politician, cheerfully. + +They went to the dinner separately, so as not to appear to have +conferred before, and greeted each other on arriving as though +they had not seen each other for days. + +"How's business, Mike?" + +"Oh, fair, Pat. How's things with you?" + +"So so." + +"Things lookin' all right in your ward for November?" + +Mr. Tiernan wrinkled a fat forehead. "Can't tell yet." All this +was for the benefit of Mr. McKenty, who did not suspect rank party +disloyalty. + +Nothing much came of this conference, except that they sat about +discussing in a general way wards, pluralities, what Zeigler was +likely to do with the twelfth, whether Pinski could make it in the +sixth, Schlumbohm in the twentieth, and so on. New Republican +contestants in old, safe Democratic wards were making things look +dubious. + +"And how about the first, Kerrigan?" inquired Ungerich, a thin, +reflective German-American of shrewd presence. Ungerich was one +who had hitherto wormed himself higher in McKenty's favor than +either Kerrigan or Tiernan. + +"Oh, the first's all right," replied Kerrigan, archly. "Of course +you never can tell. This fellow Scully may do something, but I +don't think it will be much. If we have the same police protection--" + +Ungerich was gratified. He was having a struggle in his own ward, +where a rival by the name of Glover appeared to be pouring out +money like water. He would require considerably more money than +usual to win. It was the same with Duvanicki. + +McKenty finally parted with his lieutenants--more feelingly with +Kerrigan and Tiernan than he had ever done before. He did not +wholly trust these two, and he could not exactly admire them and +their methods, which were the roughest of all, but they were useful. + +"I'm glad to learn," he said, at parting, "that things are looking +all right with you, Pat, and you, Mike," nodding to each in turn. +"We're going to need the most we can get out of everybody. I +depend on you two to make a fine showing--the best of any. The +rest of us will not forget it when the plums are being handed +around afterward." + +"Oh, you can depend on me to do the best I can always," commented +Mr. Kerrigan, sympathetically. "It's a tough year, but we haven't +failed yet." + +"And me, Chief! That goes for me," observed Mr. Tiernan, raucously. +"I guess I can do as well as I have." + +"Good for you, Mike!" soothed McKenty, laying a gentle hand on his +shoulder. "And you, too, Kerrigan. Yours are the key wards, and +we understand that. I've always been sorry that the leaders +couldn't agree on you two for something better than councilmen; +but next time there won't be any doubt of it, if I have any influence +then." He went in and closed the door. Outside a cool October +wind was whipping dead leaves and weed stalks along the pavements. +Neither Tiernan nor Kerrigan spoke, though they had come away +together, until they were two hundred feet down the avenue toward +Van Buren. + +"Some talk, that, eh?" commented Mr. Tiernan, eying Mr. Kerrigan +in the flare of a passing gas-lamp. + +"Sure. That's the stuff they always hand out when they're up +against it. Pretty kind words, eh?" + +"And after ten years of about the roughest work that's done, eh? +It's about time, what? Say, it's a wonder he didn't think of that +last June when the convention was in session. + +"Tush! Mikey," smiled Mr. Kerrigan, grimly. "You're a bad little +boy. You want your pie too soon. Wait another two or four or six +years, like Paddy Kerrigan and the others." + +"Yes, I will--not," growled Mr. Tiernan. "Wait'll the sixth." + +"No more, will I," replied Mr. Kerrigan. "Say, we know a trick +that beats that next-year business to a pulp. What?" + +"You're dead right," commented Mr. Tiernan. + +And so they went peacefully home. + + + + +Chapter XXXVII + + + +Aileen's Revenge + +The interesting Polk Lynde, rising one morning, decided that his +affair with Aileen, sympathetic as it was, must culminate in the +one fashion satisfactory to him here and now--this day, if possible, +or the next. Since the luncheon some considerable time had elapsed, +and although he had tried to seek her out in various ways, Aileen, +owing to a certain feeling that she must think and not jeopardize +her future, had evaded him. She realized well enough that she was +at the turning of the balance, now that opportunity was knocking +so loudly at her door, and she was exceedingly coy and distrait. +In spite of herself the old grip of Cowperwood was over her--the +conviction that he was such a tremendous figure in the world--and +this made her strangely disturbed, nebulous, and meditative. +Another type of woman, having troubled as much as she had done, +would have made short work of it, particularly since the details +in regard to Mrs. Hand had been added. Not so Aileen. She could +not quite forget the early vows and promises exchanged between +them, nor conquer the often-fractured illusions that he might still +behave himself. + +On the other hand, Polk Lynde, marauder, social adventurer, a +bucaneer of the affections, was not so easily to be put aside, +delayed, and gainsaid. Not unlike Cowperwood, he was a man of +real force, and his methods, in so far as women were concerned, +were even more daring. Long trifling with the sex had taught him +that they were coy, uncertain, foolishly inconsistent in their +moods, even with regard to what they most desired. If one +contemplated victory, it had frequently to be taken with an iron +hand. + +From this attitude on his part had sprung his rather dark fame. +Aileen felt it on the day that she took lunch with him. His solemn, +dark eyes were treacherously sweet. She felt as if she might be +paving the way for some situation in which she would find herself +helpless before his sudden mood--and yet she had come. + +But Lynde, meditating Aileen's delay, had this day decided that +he should get a definite decision, and that it should be favorable. +He called her up at ten in the morning and chafed her concerning +her indecision and changeable moods. He wanted to know whether +she would not come and see the paintings at his friend's studio +--whether she could not make up her mind to come to a barn-dance +which some bachelor friends of his had arranged. When she pleaded +being out of sorts he urged her to pull herself together. "You're +making things very difficult for your admirers," he suggested, +sweetly. + +Aileen fancied she had postponed the struggle diplomatically for +some little time without ending it, when at two o'clock in the +afternoon her door-bell was rung and the name of Lynde brought up. +"He said he was sure you were in," commented the footman, on whom +had been pressed a dollar, "and would you see him for just a moment? +He would not keep you more than a moment." + +Aileen, taken off her guard by this effrontery, uncertain as to +whether there might not be something of some slight import concerning +which he wished to speak to her, quarreling with herself because +of her indecision, really fascinated by Lynde as a rival for her +affections, and remembering his jesting, coaxing voice of the +morning, decided to go down. She was lonely, and, clad in a +lavender housegown with an ermine collar and sleeve cuffs, was +reading a book. + +"Show him into the music-room," she said to the lackey. When she +entered she was breathing with some slight difficulty, for so Lynde +affected her. She knew she had displayed fear by not going to him +before, and previous cowardice plainly manifested does not add to +one's power of resistance. + +"Oh!" she exclaimed, with an assumption of bravado which she did +not feel. "I didn't expect to see you so soon after your telephone +message. You have never been in our house before, have you? Won't +you put up your coat and hat and come into the gallery? It's brighter +there, and you might be interested in some of the pictures." + +Lynde, who was seeking for any pretext whereby he might prolong +his stay and overcome her nervous mood, accepted, pretending, +however, that he was merely passing and with a moment to spare. + +"Thought I'd get just one glimpse of you again. Couldn't resist +the temptation to look in. Stunning room, isn't it? Spacious--and +there you are! Who did that? Oh, I see--Van Beers. And a jolly +fine piece of work it is, too, charming." + +He surveyed her and then turned back to the picture where, ten +years younger, buoyant, hopeful, carrying her blue-and-white striped +parasol, she sat on a stone bench against the Dutch background of +sky and clouds. Charmed by the picture she presented in both +cases, he was genially complimentary. To-day she was stouter, +ruddier--the fiber of her had hardened, as it does with so many +as the years come on; but she was still in full bloom--a little +late in the summer, but in full bloom. + +"Oh yes; and this Rembrandt--I'm surprised! I did not know your +husband's collection was so representative. Israels, I see, and +Gerome, and Meissonier! Gad! It is a representative collection, +isn't it?" + +"Some of the things are excellent," she commented, with an air, +aping Cowperwood and others, "but a number will be weeded out +eventually--that Paul Potter and this Goy--as better examples come +into the market." + +She had heard Cowperwood say as much, over and over. + +Finding that conversation was possible between them in this easy, +impersonal way, Aileen became quite natural and interested, pleased +and entertained by his discreet and charming presence. Evidently +he did not intend to pay much more than a passing social call. +On the other hand, Lynde was studying her, wondering what effect +his light, distant air was having. As he finished a very casual +survey of the gallery he remarked: + +"I have always wondered about this house. I knew Lord did it, of +course, and I always heard it was well done. That is the dining-room, +I suppose?" + +Aileen, who had always been inordinately vain of the house in spite +of the fact that it had proved of small use socially, was delighted +to show him the remainder of the rooms. Lynde, who was used, of +course, to houses of all degrees of material splendor--that of his +own family being one of the best--pretended an interest he did not +feel. He commented as he went on the taste of the decorations and +wood-carving, the charm of the arrangement that permitted neat +brief vistas, and the like. + +"Just wait a moment," said Aileen, as they neared the door of her +own boudoir. "I've forgotten whether mine is in order. I want +you to see that." + +She opened it and stepped in. + +"Yes, you may come," she called. + +He followed. "Oh yes, indeed. Very charming. Very graceful--those +little lacy dancing figures--aren't they? A delightful color scheme. +It harmonizes with you exactly. It is quite like you." + +He paused, looking at the spacious rug, which was of warm blues +and creams, and at the gilt ormolu bed. "Well done," he said, and +then, suddenly changing his mood and dropping his talk of decoration +(Aileen was to his right, and he was between her and the door), +he added: "Tell me now why won't you come to the barn-dance to-night? +It would be charming. You will enjoy it." + +Aileen saw the sudden change in his mood. She recognized that by +showing him the rooms she had led herself into an easily made +disturbing position. His dark engaging eyes told their own story. + +"Oh, I don't feel in the mood to. I haven't for a number of things +for some time. I--" + +She began to move unconcernedly about him toward the door, but he +detained her with his hand. "Don't go just yet," he said. "Let +me talk to you. You always evade me in such a nervous way. Don't +you like me at all?" + +"Oh yes, I like you; but can't we talk just as well down in the +music-room as here? Can't I tell you why I evade you down there +just as well as I can here?" She smiled a winning and now fearless +smile. + +Lynde showed his even white teeth in two gleaming rows. His eyes +filled with a gay maliciousness. "Surely, surely," he replied; +"but you're so nice in your own room here. I hate to leave it." + +"Just the same," replied Aileen, still gay, but now slightly +disturbed also, "I think we might as well. You will find me just +as entertaining downstairs." + +She moved, but his strength, quite as Cowperwood's, was much too +great for her. He was a strong man. + +"Really, you know," she said, "you mustn't act this way here. +Some one might come in. What cause have I given you to make you +think you could do like this with me?" + +"What cause?" he asked, bending over her and smoothing her plump +arms with his brown hands. "Oh, no definite cause, perhaps. You +are a cause in yourself. I told you how sweet I thought you were, +the night we were at the Alcott. Didn't you understand then? I +thought you did." + +"Oh, I understood that you liked me, and all that, perhaps. Any +one might do that. But as for anything like--well--taking such +liberties with me--I never dreamed of it. But listen. I think I +hear some one coming." Aileen, making a sudden vigorous effort to +free herself and failing, added: "Please let me go, Mr. Lynde. +It isn't very gallant of you, I must say, restraining a woman +against her will. If I had given you any real cause--I shall be +angry in a moment." + +Again the even smiling teeth and dark, wrinkling, malicious eyes. + +"Really! How you go on! You would think I was a perfect stranger. +Don't you remember what you said to me at lunch? You didn't keep +your promise. You practically gave me to understand that you would +come. Why didn't you? Are you afraid of me, or don't you like me, +or both? I think you're delicious, splendid, and I want to know." + +He shifted his position, putting one arm about her waist, pulling +her close to him, looking into her eyes. With the other he held +her free arm. Suddenly he covered her mouth with his and then +kissed her cheeks. "You care for me, don't you? What did you mean +by saying you might come, if you didn't?" + +He held her quite firm, while Aileen struggled. It was a new +sensation this--that of the other man, and this was Polk Lynde, +the first individual outside of Cowperwood to whom she had ever +felt drawn. But now, here, in her own room--and it was within the +range of possibilities that Cowperwood might return or the servants +enter. + +"Oh, but think what you are doing," she protested, not really +disturbed as yet as to the outcome of the contest with him, and +feeling as though he were merely trying to make her be sweet to +him without intending anything more at present--"here in my own +room! Really, you're not the man I thought you were at all, if you +don't instantly let me go. Mr. Lynde! Mr. Lynde!" (He had bent +over and was kissing her). "Oh, you shouldn't do this! Really! +I--I said I might come, but that was far from doing it. And to +have you come here and take advantage of me in this way! I think +you're horrid. If I ever had any interest in you, it is quite +dead now, I can assure you. Unless you let me go at once, I give +you my word I will never see you any more. I won't! Really, I +won't! I mean it! Oh, please let me go! I'll scream, I tell you! +I'll never see you again after this day! Oh--" It was an intense +but useless struggle. + +Coming home one evening about a week later, Cowperwood found Aileen +humming cheerfully, and yet also in a seemingly deep and reflective +mood. She was just completing an evening toilet, and looked young +and colorful--quite her avid, seeking self of earlier days. + +"Well," he asked, cheerfully, "how have things gone to-day?" Aileen, +feeling somehow, as one will on occasions, that if she had done +wrong she was justified and that sometime because of this she might +even win Cowperwood back, felt somewhat kindlier toward him. "Oh, +very well," she replied. "I stopped in at the Hoecksemas' this +afternoon for a little while. They're going to Mexico in November. +She has the darlingest new basket-carriage--if she only looked +like anything when she rode in it. Etta is getting ready to enter +Bryn Mawr. She is all fussed up about leaving her dog and cat. +Then I went down to one of Lane Cross's receptions, and over to +Merrill's"--she was referring to the great store--"and home. I +saw Taylor Lord and Polk Lynde together in Wabash Avenue." + +"Polk Lynde?" commented Cowperwood. "Is he interesting?" + +"Yes, he is," replied Aileen. "I never met a man with such perfect +manners. He's so fascinating. He's just like a boy, and yet, +Heaven knows, he seems to have had enough worldly experience." + +"So I've heard," commented Cowperwood. "Wasn't he the one that +was mixed up in that Carmen Torriba case here a few years ago?" +Cowperwood was referring to the matter of a Spanish dancer traveling +in America with whom Lynde had been apparently desperately in love. + +"Oh yes," replied Aileen, maliciously; "but that oughtn't to make +any difference to you. He's charming, anyhow. I like him." + +"I didn't say it did, did I? You don't object to my mentioning a +mere incident?" + +"Oh, I know about the incident," replied Aileen, jestingly. "I +know you." + +"What do you mean by that?" he asked, studying her face. + +"Oh, I know you," she replied, sweetly and yet defensively. "You +think I'll stay here and be content while you run about with other +women--play the sweet and loving wife? Well, I won't. I know why +you say this about Lynde. It's to keep me from being interested +in him, possibly. Well, I will be if I want to. I told you I +would be, and I will. You can do what you please about that. You +don't want me, so why should you be disturbed as to whether other +men are interested in me or not?" + +The truth was that Cowperwood was not clearly thinking of any +probable relation between Lynde and Aileen any more than he was +in connection with her and any other man, and yet in a remote way +he was sensing some one. It was this that Aileen felt in him, and +that brought forth her seemingly uncalled-for comment. Cowperwood, +under the circumstances, attempted to be as suave as possible, +having caught the implication clearly. + +"Aileen," he cooed, "how you talk! Why do you say that? You know +I care for you. I can't prevent anything you want to do, and I'm +sure you know I don't want to. It's you that I want to see satisfied. +You know that I care." + +"Yes, I know how you care," replied Aileen, her mood changing for +the moment. "Don't start that old stuff, please. I'm sick of it. +I know how you're running around. I know about Mrs. Hand. Even +the newspapers make that plain. You've been home just one evening +in the last eight days, long enough for me to get more than a +glimpse of you. Don't talk to me. Don't try to bill and coo. +I've always known. Don't think I don't know who your latest flame +is. But don't begin to whine, and don't quarrel with me if I go +about and get interested in other men, as I certainly will. It +will be all your fault if I do, and you know it. Don't begin and +complain. It won't do you any good. I'm not going to sit here +and be made a fool of. I've told you that over and over. You +don't believe it, but I'm not. I told you that I'd find some one +one of these days, and I will. As a matter of fact, I have already." + +At this remark Cowperwood surveyed her coolly, critically, and yet +not unsympathetically; but she swung out of the room with a defiant +air before anything could be said, and went down to the music-room, +from whence a few moments later there rolled up to him from the +hall below the strains of the second Hungarian Rhapsodie, feelingly +and for once movingly played. Into it Aileen put some of her own +wild woe and misery. Cowperwood hated the thought for the moment +that some one as smug as Lynde--so good-looking, so suave a society +rake--should interest Aileen; but if it must be, it must be. He +could have no honest reason for complaint. At the same time a +breath of real sorrow for the days that had gone swept over him. +He remembered her in Philadelphia in her red cape as a school-girl +--in his father's house--out horseback-riding, driving. What a +splendid, loving girl she had been--such a sweet fool of love. +Could she really have decided not to worry about him any more? +Could it be possible that she might find some one else who would +be interested in her, and in whom she would take a keen interest? +It was an odd thought for him. + +He watched her as she came into the dining-room later, arrayed in +green silk of the shade of copper patina, her hair done in a high +coil--and in spite of himself he could not help admiring her. She +looked very young in her soul, and yet moody--loving (for some +one), eager, and defiant. He reflected for a moment what terrible +things passion and love are--how they make fools of us all. "All +of us are in the grip of a great creative impulse," he said to +himself. He talked of other things for a while--the approaching +election, a poster-wagon he had seen bearing the question, "Shall +Cowperwood own the city?" "Pretty cheap politics, I call that," +he commented. And then he told of stopping in a so-called Republican +wigwam at State and Sixteenth streets--a great, cheaply erected, +unpainted wooden shack with seats, and of hearing himself bitterly +denounced by the reigning orator. "I was tempted once to ask that +donkey a few questions," he added, "but I decided I wouldn't." + +Aileen had to smile. In spite of all his faults he was such a +wonderful man--to set a city thus by the ears. "Yet, what care I +how fair he be, if he be not fair to me." + +"Did you meet any one else besides Lynde you liked?" he finally +asked, archly, seeking to gather further data without stirring up +too much feeling. + +Aileen, who had been studying him, feeling sure the subject would +come up again, replied: "No, I haven't; but I don't need to. One +is enough." + +"What do you mean by that?" he asked, gently. + +"Oh, just what I say. One will do." + +"You mean you are in love with Lynde?" + +"I mean--oh!" She stopped and surveyed him defiantly. "What +difference does it make to you what I mean? Yes, I am. But what +do you care? Why do you sit there and question me? It doesn't make +any difference to you what I do. You don't want me. Why should +you sit there and try to find out, or watch? It hasn't been any +consideration for you that has restrained me so far. Suppose I +am in love? What difference would it make to you?" + +"Oh, I care. You know I care. Why do you say that?" + +"Yes, you care," she flared. "I know how you care. Well, I'll +just tell you one thing"--rage at his indifference was driving her +on--"I am in love with Lynde, and what's more, I'm his mistress. +And I'll continue to be. But what do you care? Pshaw!" + +Her eyes blazed hotly, her color rose high and strong. She breathed +heavily. + +At this announcement, made in the heat of spite and rage generated +by long indifference, Cowperwood sat up for a moment, and his eyes +hardened with quite that implacable glare with which he sometimes +confronted an enemy. He felt at once there were many things he +could do to make her life miserable, and to take revenge on Lynde, +but he decided after a moment he would not. It was not weakness, +but a sense of superior power that was moving him. Why should he +be jealous? Had he not been unkind enough? In a moment his mood +changed to one of sorrow for Aileen, for himself, for life, indeed +--its tangles of desire and necessity. He could not blame Aileen. +Lynde was surely attractive. He had no desire to part with her or +to quarrel with him--merely to temporarily cease all intimate +relations with her and allow her mood to clear itself up. Perhaps +she would want to leave him of her own accord. Perhaps, if he +ever found the right woman, this might prove good grounds for his +leaving her. The right woman--where was she? He had never found +her yet. + +"Aileen," he said, quite softly, "I wish you wouldn't feel so +bitterly about this. Why should you? When did you do this? Will +you tell me that?" + +"No, I'll not tell you that," she replied, bitterly. "It's none +of your affair, and I'll not tell you. Why should you ask? You +don't care." + +"But I do care, I tell you," he returned, irritably, almost roughly. +"When did you? You can tell me that, at least." His eyes had a +hard, cold look for the moment, dying away, though, into kindly +inquiry. + +"Oh, not long ago. About a week," Aileen answered, as though she +were compelled. + +"How long have you known him?" he asked, curiously. + +"Oh, four or five months, now. I met him last winter." + +"And did you do this deliberately--because you were in love with +him, or because you wanted to hurt me?" + +He could not believe from past scenes between them that she had +ceased to love him. + +Aileen stirred irritably. "I like that," she flared. "I did it +because I wanted to, and not because of any love for you--I can +tell you that. I like your nerve sitting here presuming to question +me after the way you have neglected me." She pushed back her plate, +and made as if to get up. + +"Wait a minute, Aileen," he said, simply, putting down his knife +and fork and looking across the handsome table where Sevres, silver, +fruit, and dainty dishes were spread, and where under silk-shaded +lights they sat opposite each other. "I wish you wouldn't talk +that way to me. You know that I am not a petty, fourth-rate fool. +You know that, whatever you do, I am not going to quarrel with +you. I know what the trouble is with you. I know why you are +acting this way, and how you will feel afterward if you go on. +It isn't anything I will do--" He paused, caught by a wave of +feeling. + +"Oh, isn't it?" she blazed, trying to overcome the emotion that +was rising in herself. The calmness of him stirred up memories +of the past. "Well, you keep your sympathy for yourself. I don't +need it. I will get along. I wish you wouldn't talk to me." + +She shoved her plate away with such force that she upset a glass +in which was champagne, the wine making a frayed, yellowish splotch +on the white linen, and, rising, hurried toward the door. She was +choking with anger, pain, shame, regret. + +"Aileen! Aileen!" he called, hurrying after her, regardless of the +butler, who, hearing the sound of stirring chairs, had entered. +These family woes were an old story to him. "It's love you want +--not revenge. I know--I can tell. You want to be loved by some +one completely. I'm sorry. You mustn't be too hard on me. I +sha'n't be on you." He seized her by the arm and detained her as +they entered the next room. By this time Aileen was too ablaze +with emotion to talk sensibly or understand what he was doing. + +"Let me go!" she exclaimed, angrily, hot tears in her eyes. "Let +me go! I tell you I don't love you any more. I tell you I hate +you!" She flung herself loose and stood erect before him. "I +don't want you to talk to me! I don't want you to speak to me! +You're the cause of all my troubles. You're the cause of whatever +I do, when I do it, and don't you dare to deny it! You'll see! +You'll see! I'll show you what I'll do!" + +She twisted and turned, but he held her firmly until, in his strong +grasp, as usual, she collapsed and began to cry. "Oh, I cry," she +declared, even in her tears, "but it will be just the same. It's +too late! too late!" + + + + +Chapter XXXVIII + + + +An Hour of Defeat + +The stoic Cowperwood, listening to the blare and excitement that +went with the fall campaign, was much more pained to learn of +Aileen's desertion than to know that he had arrayed a whole social +element against himself in Chicago. He could not forget the wonder +of those first days when Aileen was young, and love and hope had +been the substance of her being. The thought ran through all his +efforts and cogitations like a distantly orchestrated undertone. +In the main, in spite of his activity, he was an introspective +man, and art, drama, and the pathos of broken ideals were not +beyond him. He harbored in no way any grudge against Aileen--only +a kind of sorrow over the inevitable consequences of his own +ungovernable disposition, the will to freedom within himself. +Change! Change! the inevitable passing of things! Who parts with +a perfect thing, even if no more than an unreasoning love, without +a touch of self-pity? + +But there followed swiftly the sixth of November, with its election, +noisy and irrational, and the latter resulted in a resounding +defeat. Out of the thirty-two Democratic aldermen nominated only +ten were elected, giving the opposition a full two-thirds majority +in council, Messrs. Tiernan and Kerrigan, of course, being safely +in their places. With them came a Republican mayor and all his +Republican associates on the ticket, who were now supposed to carry +out the theories of the respectable and the virtuous. Cowperwood +knew what it meant and prepared at once to make overtures to the +enemy. From McKenty and others he learned by degrees the full +story of Tiernan's and Kerrigan's treachery, but he did not store +it up bitterly against them. Such was life. They must be looked +after more carefully in future, or caught in some trap and utterly +undone. According to their own accounts, they had barely managed +to scrape through. + +"Look at meself! I only won by three hundred votes," archly declared +Mr. Kerrigan, on divers and sundry occasions. "By God, I almost +lost me own ward!" + +Mr. Tiernan was equally emphatic. "The police was no good to me," +he declared, firmly. "They let the other fellows beat up me men. +I only polled six thousand when I should have had nine." + +But no one believed them. + +While McKenty meditated as to how in two years he should be able +to undo this temporary victory, and Cowperwood was deciding that +conciliation was the best policy for him, Schryhart, Hand, and +Arneel, joining hands with young MacDonald, were wondering how +they could make sure that this party victory would cripple Cowperwood +and permanently prevent him from returning to power. It was a +long, intricate fight that followed, but it involved (before +Cowperwood could possibly reach the new aldermen) a proposed +reintroduction and passage of the much-opposed General Electric +franchise, the granting of rights and privileges in outlying +districts to various minor companies, and last and worst--a thing +which had not previously dawned on Cowperwood as in any way +probable--the projection of an ordinance granting to a certain +South Side corporation the privilege of erecting and operating an +elevated road. This was as severe a blow as any that had yet been +dealt Cowperwood, for it introduced a new factor and complication +into the Chicago street-railway situation which had hitherto, for +all its troubles, been comparatively simple. + +In order to make this plain it should be said that some eighteen +or twenty years before in New York there had been devised and +erected a series of elevated roads calculated to relieve the +congestion of traffic on the lower portion of that long and narrow +island, and they had proved an immense success. Cowperwood had +been interested in them, along with everything else which pertained +to public street traffic, from the very beginning. In his various +trips to New York he had made a careful physical inspection of +them. He knew all about their incorporation, backers, the expense +connected with them, their returns, and so forth. Personally, in +so far as New York was concerned, he considered them an ideal +solution of traffic on that crowded island. Here in Chicago, +where the population was as yet comparatively small--verging now +toward a million, and widely scattered over a great area--he did +not feel that they would be profitable--certainly not for some +years to come. What traffic they gained would be taken from the +surface lines, and if he built them he would be merely doubling +his expenses to halve his profits. From time to time he had +contemplated the possibility of their being built by other men +--providing they could secure a franchise, which previous to the +late election had not seemed probable--and in this connection he +had once said to Addison: "Let them sink their money, and about +the time the population is sufficient to support the lines they +will have been driven into the hands of receivers. That will +simply chase the game into my bag, and I can buy them for a mere +song." With this conclusion Addison had agreed. But since this +conversation circumstances made the construction of these elevated +roads far less problematic. + +In the first place, public interest in the idea of elevated roads +was increasing. They were a novelty, a factor in the life of New +York; and at this time rivalry with the great cosmopolitan heart +was very keen in the mind of the average Chicago citizen. Public +sentiment in this direction, however naive or unworthy, was +nevertheless sufficient to make any elevated road in Chicago popular +for the time being. In the second place, it so happened that +because of this swelling tide of municipal enthusiasm, this +renaissance of the West, Chicago had finally been chosen, at a +date shortly preceding the present campaign, as the favored city +for an enormous international fair--quite the largest ever given +in America. Men such as Hand, Schryhart, Merrill, and Arneel, to +say nothing of the various newspaper publishers and editors, had +been enthusiastic supporters of the project, and in this Cowperwood +had been one with them. No sooner, however, had the award actually +been granted than Cowperwood's enemies made it their first concern +to utilize the situation against him. + +To begin with, the site of the fair, by aid of the new anti-Cowperwood +council, was located on the South Side, at the terminus of the +Schryhart line, thus making the whole city pay tribute to that +corporation. Simultaneously the thought suddenly dawned upon the +Schryhart faction that it would be an excellent stroke of business +if the New York elevated-road idea were now introduced into the +city--not so much with the purpose of making money immediately, +but in order to bring the hated magnate to an understanding that +he had a formidable rival which might invade the territory that +he now monopolized, curtailing his and thus making it advisable +for him to close out his holdings and depart. Bland and interesting +were the conferences held by Mr. Schryhart with Mr. Hand, and by +Mr. Hand with Mr. Arneel on this subject. Their plan as first +outlined was to build an elevated road on the South Side--south of +the proposed fair-grounds--and once that was popular--having +previously secured franchises which would cover the entire field, +West, South, and North--to construct the others at their leisure, +and so to bid Mr. Cowperwood a sweet and smiling adieu. + +Cowperwood, awaiting the assembling of the new city council one +month after election, did not propose to wait in peace and quiet +until the enemy should strike at him unprepared. Calling those +familiar agents, his corporation attorneys, around him, he was +shortly informed of the new elevated-road idea, and it gave him a +real shock. Obviously Hand and Schryhart were now in deadly +earnest. At once he dictated a letter to Mr. Gilgan asking him +to call at his office. At the same time he hurriedly adjured his +advisers to use due diligence in discovering what influences could +be brought to bear on the new mayor, the honorable Chaffee Thayer +Sluss, to cause him to veto the ordinances in case they came before +him--to effect in him, indeed, a total change of heart. + +The Hon. Chaffee Thayer Sluss, whose attitude in this instance +was to prove crucial, was a tall, shapely, somewhat grandiloquent +person who took himself and his social and commercial opportunities +and doings in the most serious and, as it were, elevated light. +You know, perhaps, the type of man or woman who, raised in an +atmosphere of comparative comfort and some small social pretension, +and being short of those gray convolutions in the human brain-pan +which permit an individual to see life in all its fortuitousness +and uncertainty, proceed because of an absence of necessity and +the consequent lack of human experience to take themselves and all +that they do in the most reverential and Providence-protected spirit. +The Hon. Chaffee Thayer Sluss reasoned that, because of the splendid +ancestry on which he prided himself, he was an essentially honest +man. His father had amassed a small fortune in the wholesale +harness business. The wife whom at the age of twenty-eight he had +married--a pretty but inconsequential type of woman--was the daughter +of a pickle manufacturer, whose wares were in some demand and +whose children had been considered good "catches" in the neighborhood +from which the Hon. Chaffee Sluss emanated. There had been a +highly conservative wedding feast, and a honeymoon trip to the +Garden of the Gods and the Grand Canon. Then the sleek Chaffee, +much in the grace of both families because of his smug determination +to rise in the world, had returned to his business, which was +that of a paper-broker, and had begun with the greatest care to +amass a competence on his own account. + +The Honorable Chaffee, be it admitted, had no particular faults, +unless those of smugness and a certain over-carefulness as to his +own prospects and opportunities can be counted as such. But he +had one weakness, which, in view of his young wife's stern and +somewhat Puritanic ideas and the religious propensities of his +father and father-in-law, was exceedingly disturbing to him. He +had an eye for the beauty of women in general, and particularly +for plump, blonde women with corn-colored hair. Now and then, in +spite of the fact that he had an ideal wife and two lovely children, +he would cast a meditative and speculative eye after those alluring +forms that cross the path of all men and that seem to beckon slyly +by implication if not by actual, open suggestion. + +However, it was not until several years after Mr. Sluss had married, +and when he might have been considered settled in the ways of +righteousness, that he actually essayed to any extent the role of +a gay Lothario. An experience or two with the less vigorous and +vicious girls of the streets, a tentative love affair with a girl +in his office who was not new to the practices she encouraged, and +he was fairly launched. He lent himself at first to the great +folly of pretending to love truly; but this was taken by one and +another intelligent young woman with a grain of salt. The +entertainment and preferment he could provide were accepted as +sufficient reward. One girl, however, actually seduced, had to +be compensated by five thousand dollars--and that after such +terrors and heartaches (his wife, her family, and his own looming +up horribly in the background) as should have cured him forever +of a penchant for stenographers and employees generally. Thereafter +for a long time he confined himself strictly to such acquaintances +as he could make through agents, brokers, and manufacturers who +did business with him, and who occasionally invited him to one +form of bacchanalian feast or another. + +As time went on he became wiser, if, alas, a little more eager. +By association with merchants and some superior politicians whom +he chanced to encounter, and because the ward in which he lived +happened to be a pivotal one, he began to speak publicly on occasion +and to gather dimly the import of that logic which sees life as a +pagan wild, and religion and convention as the forms man puts on +or off to suit his fancy, mood, and whims during the onward drift +of the ages. Not for Chaffee Thayer Sluss to grasp the true meaning +of it all. His brain was not big enough. Men led dual lives, it +was true; but say what you would, and in the face of his own erring +conduct, this was very bad. On Sunday, when he went to church +with his wife, he felt that religion was essential and purifying. +In his own business he found himself frequently confronted by +various little flaws of logic relating to undue profits, +misrepresentations, and the like; but say what you would, nevertheless +and notwithstanding, God was God, morality was superior, the church +was important. It was wrong to yield to one's impulses, as he +found it so fascinating to do. One should be better than his +neighbor, or pretend to be. + +What is to be done with such a rag-bag, moralistic ass as this? +In spite of all his philanderings, and the resultant qualms due +to his fear of being found out, he prospered in business and rose +to some eminence in his own community. As he had grown more lax +he had become somewhat more genial and tolerant, more generally +acceptable. He was a good Republican, a follower in the wake of +Norrie Simms and young Truman Leslie MacDonald. His father-in-law +was both rich and moderately influential. Having lent himself to +some campaign speaking, and to party work in general, he proved +quite an adept. Because of all these things--his ability, such +as it was, his pliability, and his thoroughly respectable savor +--he had been slated as candidate for mayor on the Republican +ticket, which had subsequently been elected. + +Cowperwood was well aware, from remarks made in the previous +campaign, of the derogatory attitude of Mayor Sluss. Already he +had discussed it in a conversation with the Hon. Joel Avery +(ex-state senator), who was in his employ at the time. Avery had +recently been in all sorts of corporation work, and knew the ins +and outs of the courts--lawyers, judges, politicians--as he knew +his revised statutes. He was a very little man--not more than +five feet one inch tall--with a wide forehead, saffron hair and +brows, brown, cat-like eyes and a mushy underlip that occasionally +covered the upper one as he thought. After years and years Mr. +Avery had leamed to smile, but it was in a strange, exotic way. +Mostly he gazed steadily, folded his lower lip over his upper one, +and expressed his almost unchangeable conclusions in slow Addisonian +phrases. In the present crisis it was Mr. Avery who had a suggestion +to make. + +"One thing that I think could be done," he said to Cowperwood one +day in a very confidential conference, "would be to have a look +into the--the--shall I say the heart affairs--of the Hon. Chaffee +Thayer Sluss." Mr. Avery's cat-like eyes gleamed sardonically. +"Unless I am greatly mistaken, judging the man by his personal +presence merely, he is the sort of person who probably has had, +or if not might readily be induced to have, some compromising +affair with a woman which would require considerable sacrifice +on his part to smooth over. We are all human and vulnerable"--up +went Mr. Avery's lower lip covering the upper one, and then down +again--"and it does not behoove any of us to be too severely +ethical and self-righteous. Mr. Sluss is a well-meaning man, but +a trifle sentimental, as I take it." + +As Mr. Avery paused Cowperwood merely contemplated him, amused no +less by his personal appearance than by his suggestion. + +"Not a bad idea," he said, "though I don't like to mix heart affairs +with politics." + +"Yes," said Mr. Avery, soulfully, "there may be something in it. +I don't know. You never can tell." + +The upshot of this was that the task of obtaining an account of +Mr. Sluss's habits, tastes, and proclivities was assigned to that +now rather dignified legal personage, Mr. Burton Stimson, who in +turn assigned it to an assistant, a Mr. Marchbanks. It was an +amazing situation in some respects, but those who know anything +concerning the intricacies of politics, finance, and corporate +control, as they were practised in those palmy days, would never +marvel at the wells of subtlety, sinks of misery, and morasses of +disaster which they represented. + +From another quarter, the Hon. Patrick Gilgan was not slow in +responding to Cowperwood's message. Whatever his political +connections and proclivities, he did not care to neglect so powerful +a man. + +"And what can I be doing for you to-day, Mr. Cowperwood?" he +inquired, when he arrived looking nice and fresh, very spick and +span after his victory. + +"Listen, Mr. Gilgan," said Cowperwood, simply, eying the Republican +county chairman very fixedly and twiddling his thumbs with fingers +interlocked, "are you going to let the city council jam through +the General Electric and that South Side 'L' road ordinance without +giving me a chance to say a word or do anything about it?" + +Mr. Gilgan, so Cowperwood knew, was only one of a new quadrumvirate +setting out to rule the city, but he pretended to believe that he +was the last word--an all power and authority--after the fashion +of McKenty. "Me good man," replied Gilgan, archly, "you flatter +me. I haven't the city council in me vest pocket. I've been county +chairman, it's true, and helped to elect some of these men, but I +don't own 'em. Why shouldn't they pass the General Electric +ordinance? It's an honest ordinance, as far as I know. All the +newspapers have been for it. As for this 'L' road ordinance, I +haven't anything to do with it. It isn't anything I know much +about. Young MacDonald and Mr. Schryhart are looking after that." + +As a matter of fact, all that Mr. Gilgan was saying was decidedly +true. A henchman of young MacDonald's who was beginning to learn +to play politics--an alderman bythe name of Klemm--had been scheduled +as a kind of field-marshal, and it was MacDonald--not Gilgan, +Tiernan, Kerrigan, or Edstrom--who was to round up the recalcitrant +aldermen, telling them their duty. Gilgan's quadrumvirate had not +as yet got their machine in good working order, though they were +doing their best to bring this about. "I helped to elect every +one of these men, it's true; but that doesn't mean I'm running 'em +by any means," concluded Gilgan. "Not yet, anyhow." + +At the "not yet" Cowperwood smiled. + +"Just the same, Mr. Gilgan," he went on, smoothly, "you're the +nominal head and front of this whole movement in opposition to me +at present, and you're the one I have to look to. You have this +present Republican situation almost entirely in your own fingers, +and you can do about as you like if you're so minded. If you +choose you can persuade the members of council to take considerable +more time than they otherwise would in passing these ordinances +--of that I'm sure. I don't know whether you know or not, Mr. +Gilgan, though I suppose you do, that this whole fight against me +is a strike campaign intended to drive me out of Chicago. Now +you're a man of sense and judgment and considerable business +experience, and I want to ask you if you think that is fair. I +came here some sixteen or seventeen years ago and went into the +gas business. It was an open field, the field I undertook to +develop--outlying towns on the North, South, and West sides. Yet +the moment I started the old-line companies began to fight me, +though I wasn't invading their territory at all at the time." + +"I remember it well enough," replied Gilgan. "I was one of the +men that helped you to get your Hyde Park franchise. You'd never +have got it if it hadn't been for me. That fellow McKibben," added +Gilgan, with a grin, "a likely chap, him. He always walked as if +he had on rubber shoes. He's with you yet, I suppose?" + +"Yes, he's around here somewhere," replied Cowperwood, loftily. +"But to go back to this other matter, most of the men that are +behind this General Electric ordinance and this 'L' road franchise +were in the gas business--Blackman, Jules, Baker, Schryhart, and +others--and they are angry because I came into their field, and +angrier still because they had eventually to buy me out. They're +angry because I reorganized these old-fashioned street-railway +companies here and put them on their feet. Merrill is angry +because I didn't run a loop around his store, and the others are +angry because I ever got a loop at all. They're all angry because +I managed to step in and do the things that they should have done +long before. I came here--and that's the whole story in a nutshell. +I've had to have the city council with me to be able to do anything +at all, and because I managed to make it friendly and keep it so +they've turned on me in that section and gone into politics. I +know well enough, Mr. Gilgan," concluded Cowperwood, "who has been +behind you in this fight. I've known all along where the money +has been coming from. You've won, and you've won handsomely, and +I for one don't begrudge you your victory in the least; but what +I want to know now is, are you going to help them carry this fight +on against me in this way, or are you not? Are you going to give +me a fighting chance? There's going to be another election in two +years. Politics isn't a bed of roses that stays made just because +you make it once. These fellows that you have got in with are a +crowd of silk stockings. They haven't any sympathy with you or +any one like you. They're willing to be friendly with you now +--just long enough to get something out of you and club me to death. +But after that how long do you think they will have any use for +you--how long?" + +"Not very long, maybe," replied Gilgan, simply and contemplatively, +"but the world is the world, and we have to take it as we find it." + +"Quite so," replied Cowperwood, undismayed; "but Chicago is Chicago, +and I will be here as long as they will. Fighting me in this +fashion--building elevated roads to cut into my profits and giving +franchises to rival companies--isn't going to get me out or +seriously injure me, either. I'm here to stay, and the political +situation as it is to-day isn't going to remain the same forever +and ever. Now, you are an ambitious man; I can see that. You're +not in politics for your health--that I know. Tell me exactly +what it is you want and whether I can't get it for you as quick +if not quicker than these other fellows? What is it I can do for +you that will make you see that my side is just as good as theirs +and better? I am playing a legitimate game in Chicago. I've been +building up an excellent street-car service. I don't want to be +annoyed every fifteen minutes by a rival company coming into the +field. Now, what can I do to straighten this out? Isn't there +some way that you and I can come together without fighting at every +step? Can't you suggest some programme we can both follow that +will make things easier?" + +Cowperwood paused, and Gilgan thought for a long time. It was +true, as Cowperwood said, that he was not in politics for his +health. The situation, as at present conditioned, was not inherently +favorable for the brilliant programme he had originally mapped out +for himself. Tiernan, Kerrigan, and Edstrom were friendly as yet; +but they were already making extravagant demands; and the reformers +--those who had been led by the newspapers to believe that Cowperwood +was a scoundrel and all his works vile--were demanding that a +strictly moral programme be adhered to in all the doings of council, +and that no jobs, contracts, or deals of any kind be entered into +without the full knowledge of the newspapers and of the public. +Gilgan, even after the first post-election conference with his +colleagues, had begun to feel that he was between the devil and +the deep sea, but he was feeling his way, and not inclined to be +in too much of a hurry. + +"It's rather a flat proposition you're makin' me," he said softly, +after a time, "askin' me to throw down me friends the moment I've +won a victory for 'em. It's not the way I've been used to playin' +politics. There may be a lot of truth in what you say. Still, a +man can't be jumpin' around like a cat in a bag. He has to be +faithful to somebody sometime." Mr. Gilgan paused, considerably +nonplussed by his own position. + +"Well," replied Cowperwood, sympathetically, "think it over. It's +difficult business, this business of politics. I'm in it, for +one, only because I have to be. If you see any way you can help +me, or I can help you, let me know. In the mean time don't take +in bad part what I've just said. I'm in the position of a man +with his hack to the wall. I'm fighting for my life. Naturally, +I'm going to fight. But you and I needn't be the worse friends +for that. We may become the best of friends yet." + +"It's well I know that," said Gilgan, "and it's the best of friends +I'd like to be with you. But even if I could take care of the +aldermen, which I couldn't alone as yet, there's the mayor. I +don't know him at all except to say how-do-ye-do now and then; but +he's very much opposed to you, as I understand it. He'll be running +around most likely and talking in the papers. A man like that can +do a good deal." + +"I may be able to arrange for that," replied Cowperwood. "Perhaps +Mr. Sluss can be reached. It may be that he isn't as opposed to +me as he thinks he is. You never can tell." + + + + +Chapter XXXIX + + + +The New Administration + +Oliver Marchbanks, the youthful fox to whom Stimson had assigned +the task of trapping Mr. Sluss in some legally unsanctioned act, +had by scurrying about finally pieced together enough of a story +to make it exceedingly unpleasant for the Honorable Chaffee in +case he were to become the too willing tool of Cowperwood's enemies. +The principal agent in this affair was a certain Claudia +Carlstadt--adventuress, detective by disposition, and a sort of +smiling prostitute and hireling, who was at the same time a highly +presentable and experienced individual. Needless to say, Cowperwood +knew nothing of these minor proceedings, though a genial nod from +him in the beginning had set in motion the whole machinery of +trespass in this respect. + +Claudia Carlstadt--the instrument of the Honorable Chaffee's +undoing--was blonde, slender, notably fresh as yet, being only +twenty-six, and as ruthless and unconsciously cruel as only the +avaricious and unthinking type--unthinking in the larger philosophic +meaning of the word--can be. To grasp the reason for her being, +one would have had to see the spiritless South Halstead Street +world from which she had sprung--one of those neighborhoods of +old, cracked, and battered houses where slatterns trudge to and +fro with beer-cans and shutters swing on broken hinges. In her +youth Claudia had been made to "rush the growler," to sell newspapers +at the corner of Halstead and Harrison streets, and to buy cocaine +at the nearest drug store. Her little dresses and underclothing +had always been of the poorest and shabbiest material--torn and +dirty, her ragged stockings frequently showed the white flesh of +her thin little legs, and her shoes were worn and cracked, letting +the water and snow seep through in winter. Her companions were +wretched little street boys of her own neighborhood, from whom she +learned to swear and to understand and indulge in vile practices, +though, as is often the case with children, she was not utterly +depraved thereby, at that. At eleven, when her mother died, she +ran away from the wretched children's home to which she had been +committed, and by putting up a piteous tale she was harbored on +the West Side by an Irish family whose two daughters were clerks +in a large retail store. Through these Claudia became a cash-girl. +Thereafter followed an individual career as strange and checkered +as anything that had gone before. Sufficient to say that Claudia's +native intelligence was considerable. At the age of twenty she +had managed--through her connections with the son of a shoe +manufacturer and with a rich jeweler--to amass a little cash and +an extended wardrobe. It was then that a handsome young Western +Congressman, newly elected, invited her to Washington to take a +position in a government bureau. This necessitated a knowledge +of stenography and typewriting, which she soon acquired. Later +she was introduced by a Western Senator into that form of secret +service which has no connection with legitimate government, but +which is profitable. She was used to extract secrets by flattery +and cajolery where ordinary bribery would not avail. A matter of +tracing the secret financial connections of an Illinois Congressman +finally brought her back to Chicago, and here young Stimson +encountered her. From him she learned of the political and financial +conspiracy against Cowperwood, and was in an odd manner fascinated. +From her Congressmen friends she already knew something of Sluss. +Stimson indicated that it would be worth two or three thousand +dollars and expenses if the mayor were successfully compromised. +Thus Claudia Carlstadt was gently navigated into Mr. Sluss's glowing +life. + +The matter was not so difficult of accomplishment. Through the +Hon. Joel Avery, Marchbanks secured a letter from a political +friend of Mr. Sluss in behalf of a young widow--temporarily +embarrassed, a competent stenographer, and the like--who wished a +place under the new administration. Thus equipped, Claudia presented +herself at the mayor's office armed for the fray, as it were, in +a fetching black silk of a strangely heavy grain, her throat and +fingers ornamented with simple pearls, her yellow hair arranged about +her temples in exquisite curls. Mr. Sluss was very busy, but made +an appointment. The next time she appeared a yellow and red velvet +rose had been added to her corsage. She was a shapely, full-bosomed +young woman who had acquired the art of walking, sitting, standing, +and bending after the most approved theories of the Washington +cocotte. Mr. Sluss was interested at once, but circumspect and +careful. He was now mayor of a great city, the cynosure of all +eyes. It seemed to him he remembered having already met Mrs. +Brandon, as the lady styled herself, and she reminded him where. +It had been two years before in the grill of the Richelieu. He +immediately recalled details of the interesting occasion. + +"Ah, yes, and since then, as I understand it, you married and your +husband died. Most unfortunate." + +Mr. Sluss had a large international manner suited, as he thought, +to a man in so exalted a position. + +Mrs. Brandon nodded resignedly. Her eyebrows and lashes were +carefully darkened so as to sweeten the lines of her face, and a +dimple had been made in one cheek by the aid of an orange stick. +She was the picture of delicate femininity appealingly distressful, +and yet to all appearance commercially competent. + +"At the time I met you you were connected with the government +service in Washington, I believe." + +"Yes, I had a small place in the Treasury Department, but this new +administration put me out." + +She lifted her eyes and leaned forward, thus bringing her torso +into a ravishing position. She had the air of one who has done +many things besides work in the Treasury Department. No least +detail, as she observed, was lost on Mr. Sluss. He noted her +shoes, which were button patent leather with cloth tops; her gloves, +which were glace black kid with white stitching at the back and +fastened by dark-gamet buttons; the coral necklace worn on this +occasion, and her yellow and red velvet rose. Evidently a trig +and hopeful widow, even if so recently bereaved. + +"Let me see," mused Mr. Sluss, "where are you living? Just let me +make a note of your address. This is a very nice letter from Mr. +Barry. Suppose you give me a few days to think what I can do? +This is Tuesday. Come in again on Friday. I'll see if anything +suggests itself." + +He strolled with her to the official door, and noted that her step +was light and springy. At parting she turned a very melting gaze +upon him, and at once he decided that if he could he would find +her something. She was the most fascinating applicant that had +yet appeared. + +The end of Chaffee Thayer Sluss was not far distant after this. +Mrs. Brandon returned, as requested, her costume enlivened this +time by a red-silk petticoat which contrived to show its ingratiating +flounces beneath the glistening black broadcloth of her skirt. + +"Say, did you get on to that?" observed one of the doormen, a +hold-over from the previous regime, to another of the same vintage. +"Some style to the new administration, hey? We're not so slow, +do you think?" + +He pulled his coat together and fumbled at his collar to give +himself an air of smartness, and gazed gaily at his partner, both +of them over sixty and dusty specimens, at that. + +The other poked him in the stomach. "Hold your horses there, Bill. +Not so fast. We ain't got a real start yet. Give us another six +months, and then watch out." + +Mr. Sluss was pleased to see Mrs. Brandon. He had spoken to John +Bastienelli, the new commissioner of taxes, whose offices were +directly over the way on the same hall, and the latter, seeing +that he might want favors of the mayor later on, had volubly agreed +to take care of the lady. + +"I am very glad to be able to give you this letter to Mr. Bastienelli," +commented Mr. Sluss, as he rang for a stenographer, "not only for +the sake of my old friend Mr. Barry, but for your own as well. +Do you know Mr. Barry very well?" he asked, curiously. + +"Only slightly," admitted Mrs. Brandon, feeling that Mr. Sluss +would be glad to know she was not very intimate with those who +were recommending her. "I was sent to him by a Mr. Amerman." (She +named an entirely fictitious personage.) + +Mr. Sluss was relieved. As he handed her the note she once more +surveyed him with those grateful, persuasive, appealing eyes. +They made him almost dizzy, and set up a chemical perturbation in +his blood which quite dispelled his good resolutions in regard to +the strange woman and his need of being circumspect. + +"You say you are living on the North Side?" he inquired, smiling +weakly, almost foolishly. + +"Yes, I have taken such a nice little apartment over-looking +Lincoln Park. I didn't know whether I was going to be able to +keep it up, but now that I have this position-- You've been so +very kind to me, Mr. Sluss," she concluded, with the same +I-need-to-be-cared-for air. "I hope you won't forget me entirely. +If I could be of any personal service to you at any time--" + +Mr. Sluss was rather beside himself at the thought that this +charming baggage of femininity, having come so close for the minute, +was now passing on and might disappear entirely. By a great effort +of daring, as they walked toward the door, he managed to say: "I +shall have to look into that little place of yours sometime and +see how you are getting along. I live up that way myself." + +"Oh, do!" she exclaimed, warmly. "It would be so kind. I am +practically alone in the world. Perhaps you play cards. I know +how to make a most wonderful punch. I should like you to see how +cozily I am settled." + +At this Mr. Sluss, now completely in tow of his principal weakness, +capitulated. "I will," he said, "I surely will. And that sooner +than you expect, perhaps. You must let me know how you are getting +along." + +He took her hand. She held his quite warmly. "Now I'll hold you +to your promise," she gurgled, in a throaty, coaxing way. A few +days later he encountered her at lunch-time in his hall, where she +had been literally lying in wait for him in order to repeat her +invitation. Then he came. + +The hold-over employees who worked about the City Hall in connection +with the mayor's office were hereafter instructed to note as +witnesses the times of arrival and departure of Mrs. Brandon and +Mr. Sluss. A note that he wrote to Mrs. Brandon was carefully +treasured, and sufficient evidence as to their presence at hotels +and restaurants was garnered to make out a damaging case. The +whole affair took about four months; then Mrs. Brandon suddenly +received an offer to return to Washington, and decided to depart. +The letters that followed her were a part of the data that was +finally assembled in Mr. Stimson's office to be used against Mr. +Sluss in case he became too obstreperous in his opposition to +Cowperwood. + +In the mean time the organization which Mr. Gilgan had planned +with Mr. Tiernan, Mr. Kerrigan, and Mr. Edstrom was encountering +what might be called rough sledding. It was discovered that, owing +to the temperaments of some of the new aldermen, and to the +self-righteous attitude of their political sponsors, no franchises +of any kind were to be passed unless they had the moral approval +of such men as Hand, Sluss, and the other reformers; above all, +no money of any kind was to be paid to anybody for anything. + +"Whaddye think of those damn four-flushers and come-ons, anyhow?" +inquired Mr. Kerrigan of Mr. Tiernan, shortly subsequent to a +conference with Gilgan, from which Tiernan had been unavoidably +absent. "They've got an ordinance drawn up covering the whole +city in an elevated-road scheme, and there ain't anything in it +for anybody. Say, whaddye think they think we are, anyhow? Hey?" + +Mr. Tiernan himself, after his own conference with Edstrom, had +been busy getting the lay of the land, as he termed it; and his +investigations led him to believe that a certain alderman by the +name of Klemm, a clever and very respectable German-American from +the North Side, was to be the leader of the Republicans in council, +and that he and some ten or twelve others were determined, because +of moral principles alone, that only honest measures should be +passed. It was staggering. + +At this news Mr. Kerrigan, who had been calculating on a number +of thousands of dollars for his vote on various occasions, stared +incredulously. "Well, I'll be damned!" he commented. "They've +got a nerve! What?" + +"I've been talking to this fellow Klemm of the twentieth," said +Mr. Tiernan, sardonically. "Say, he's a real one! I met him over +at the Tremont talkin' to Hvranek. He shakes hands like a dead +fish. Whaddye think he had the nerve to say to me. 'This isn't +the Mr. Tiernan of the second?' he says. + +"'I'm the same,' says I. + +"'Well, you don't look as savage as I thought you did,' says he. +Haw-haw! I felt like sayin', 'If you don't go way I'll give you a +slight tap on the wrist.' I'd like just one pass at a stiff like +that up a dark alley." (Mr. Tiernan almost groaned in anguish.) +"And then he begins to say he doesn't see how there can be any +reasonable objection to allowin' various new companies to enter +the street-car field. 'It's sufficiently clear,' he says, 'that +the public is against monopolies in any form.'" (Mr. Tiernan was +mocking Mr. Klemm's voice and language.) "My eye!" he concluded, +sententiously. "Wait till he tries to throw that dope into Gumble +and Pinski and Schlumbohm--haw, haw, haw!" + +Mr. Kerrigan, at the thought of these hearty aldermen accustomed +to all the perquisites of graft and rake-off, leaned back and gave +vent to a burst of deep-chested laughter. "I'll tell you what it +is, Mike," he said, archly, hitching up his tight, very artistic, +and almost English trousers, "we're up against a bunch of pikers +in this Gilgan crowd, and they've gotta be taught a lesson. He +knows it as well as anybody else. None o' that Christian con game +goes around where I am. I believe this man Cowperwood's right +when he says them fellows are a bunch of soreheads and jealous. +If Cowperwood's willing to put down good hard money to keep 'em +out of his game, let them do as much to stay in it. This ain't +no charity grab-bag. We ought to be able to round up enough of +these new fellows to make Schryhart and MacDonald come down good +and plenty for what they want. From what Gilgan said all along, +I thought he was dealing with live ones. They paid to win the +election. Now let 'em pay to pull off a swell franchise if they +want it, eh?" + +"You're damn right," echoed Tiernan. "I'm with you to a T." + +It was not long after this conversation that Mr. Truman Leslie +MacDonald, acting through Alderman Klemm, proceeded to make a +count of noses, and found to his astonishment that he was not as +strong as he had thought he was. Political loyalty is such a +fickle thing. A number of aldermen with curious names--Horback, +Fogarty, McGrane, Sumulsky--showed signs of being tampered with. +He hurried at once to Messrs. Hand, Schryhart, and Arneel with +this disconcerting information. They had been congratulating +themselves that the recent victory, if it resulted in nothing else, +would at least produce a blanket 'L' road franchise, and that this +would be sufficient to bring Cowperwood to his knees. + +Upon receiving MacDonald's message Hand sent at once for Gilgan. +When he inquired as to how soon a vote on the General Electric +franchise--which had been introduced by Mr. Klemm--could reasonably +be expected, Gilgan declared himself much grieved to admit that +in one direction or other considerable opposition seemed to have +developed to the measure. + +"What's that?" said Hand, a little savagely. "Didn't we make a +plain bargain in regard to this? You had all the money you asked +for, didn't you? You said you could give me twenty-six aldermen +who would vote as we agreed. You're not going to go back on your +bargain, are you?" + +"Bargain! bargain!" retorted Gilgan, irritated because of the +spirit of the assault. "I agreed to elect twenty-six Republican +aldermen, and that I did. I don't own 'em body and soul. I didn't +name 'em in every case. I made deals with the men in the different +wards that had the best chance, and that the people wanted. I'm +not responsible for any crooked work that's going on behind my +back, am I? I'm not responsible for men's not being straight if +they're not?" + +Mr. Gilgan's face was an aggrieved question-mark. + +"But you had the picking of these men," insisted Mr. Hand, +aggressively. "Every one of them had your personal indorsement. +You made the deals with them. You don't mean to say they're going +back on their sacred agreement to fight Cowperwood tooth and nail? +There can't be any misunderstanding on their part as to what they +were elected to do. The newspapers have been full of the fact +that nothing favorable to Cowperwood was to be put through." + +"That's all true enough," replied Mr. Gilgan; "but I can't be held +responsible for the private honesty of everybody. Sure I selected +these men. Sure I did! But I selected them with the help of the +rest of the Republicans and some of the Democrats. I had to make +the best terms I could--to pick the men that could win. As far +as I can find out most of 'em are satisfied not to do anything for +Cowperwood. It's passing these ordinances in favor of other people +that's stirring up the trouble." + +Mr. Hand's broad forehead wrinkled, and his blue eyes surveyed Mr. +Gilgan with suspicion. "Who are these men, anyhow?" he inquired. +"I'd like to get a list of them." + +Mr. Gilgan, safe in his own subtlety, was ready with a toll of the +supposed recalcitrants. They must fight their own battles. Mr. +Hand wrote down the names, determining meanwhile to bring pressure +to bear. He decided also to watch Mr. Gilgan. If there should +prove to be a hitch in the programme the newspapers should be +informed and commanded to thunder appropriately. Such aldermen +as proved unfaithful to the great trust imposed on them should be +smoked out, followed back to the wards which had elected them, and +exposed to the people who were behind them. Their names should +be pilloried in the public press. The customary hints as to +Cowperwood's deviltry and trickery should be redoubled. + +But in the mean time Messrs. Stimson, Avery, McKibben, Van Sickle, +and others were on Cowperwood's behalf acting separately upon +various unattached aldermen--those not temperamentally and chronically +allied with the reform idea--and making them understand that if +they could find it possible to refrain from supporting anti-Cowperwood +measures for the next two years, a bonus in the shape of an annual +salary of two thousand dollars or a gift in some other form--perhaps +a troublesome note indorsed or a mortgage taken care of--would be +forthcoming, together with a guarantee that the general public +should never know. In no case was such an offer made direct. +Friends or neighbors, or suave unidentified strangers, brought +mysterious messages. By this method some eleven aldermen--quite +apart from the ten regular Democrats who, because of McKenty and +his influence, could be counted upon--had been already suborned. +Although Schryhart, Hand, and Arneel did not know it, their plans +--even as they planned--were being thus undermined, and, try as +they would, the coveted ordinance for a blanket franchise +persistently eluded them. They had to content themselves for the +time being with a franchise for a single 'L' road line on the South +Side in Schryhart's own territory, and with a franchise to the +General Electric covering only one unimportant line, which it +would be easy for Cowperwood, if he continued in power, to take +over at some later time. + + + + +Chapter XL + + + +A Trip to Louisville + +The most serious difficulty confronting Cowperwood from now on was +really not so much political as financial. In building up and +financing his Chicago street-railway enterprises he had, in those +days when Addison was president of the Lake City National, used +that bank as his chief source of supply. Afterward, when Addison +had been forced to retire from the Lake City to assume charge of +the Chicago Trust Company, Cowperwood had succeeded in having the +latter designated as a central reserve and in inducing a number +of rural banks to keep their special deposits in its vaults. +However, since the war on him and his interests had begun to +strengthen through the efforts of Hand and Arneel--men most +influential in the control of the other central-reserve banks of +Chicago, and in close touch with the money barons of New York +--there were signs not wanting that some of the country banks +depositing with the Chicago Trust Company had been induced to +withdraw because of pressure from outside inimical forces, and +that more were to follow. It was some time before Cowperwood fully +realized to what an extent this financial opposition might be +directed against himself. In its very beginning it necessitated +speedy hurryings to New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Baltimore, +Boston--even London at times--on the chance that there would be +loose and ready cash in someone's possession. It was on one of +these peregrinations that he encountered a curious personality +which led to various complications in his life, sentimental and +otherwise, which he had not hitherto contemplated. + +In various sections of the country Cowperwood had met many men of +wealth, some grave, some gay, with whom he did business, and among +these in Louisville, Kentucky, he encountered a certain Col. +Nathaniel Gillis, very wealthy, a horseman, inventor, roue, from +whom he occasionally extracted loans. The Colonel was an interesting +figure in Kentucky society; and, taking a great liking to Cowperwood, +he found pleasure, during the brief periods in which they were +together, in piloting him about. On one occasion in Louisville +he observed: "To-night, Frank, with your permission, I am going +to introduce you to one of the most interesting women I know. She +isn't good, but she's entertaining. She has had a troubled history. +She is the ex-wife of two of my best friends, both dead, and the +ex-mistress of another. I like her because I knew her father and +mother, and because she was a clever little girl and still is a +nice woman, even if she is getting along. She keeps a sort of +house of convenience here in Louisville for a few of her old friends. +You haven't anything particular to do to-night, have you? Suppose +we go around there?" + +Cowperwood, who was always genially sportive when among strong +men--a sort of bounding collie--and who liked to humor those who +could be of use to him, agreed. + +"It sounds interesting to me. Certainly I'll go. Tell me more +about her. Is she good-looking?" + +"Rather. But better yet, she is connected with a number of women +who are." The Colonel, who had a small, gray goatee and sportive +dark eyes, winked the latter solemnly. + +Cowperwood arose. + +"Take me there," he said. + +It was a rainy night. The business on which he was seeing the +Colonel required another day to complete. There was little or +nothing to do. On the way the Colonel retailed more of the life +history of Nannie Hedden, as he familiarly called her, and explained +that, although this was her maiden name, she had subsequently +become first Mrs. John Alexander Fleming, then, after a divorce, +Mrs. Ira George Carter, and now, alas! was known among the exclusive +set of fast livers, to which he belonged, as plain Hattie Starr, +the keeper of a more or less secret house of ill repute. Cowperwood +did not take so much interest in all this until he saw her, and +then only because of two children the Colonel told him about, one +a girl by her first marriage, Berenice Fleming, who was away in a +New York boarding-school, the other a boy, Rolfe Carter, who was +in a military school for boys somewhere in the West. + +"That daughter of hers," observed the Colonel, "is a chip of the +old block, unless I miss my guess. I only saw her two or three +times a few years ago when I was down East at her mother's summer +home; but she struck me as having great charm even for a girl of +ten. She's a lady born, if ever there was one. How her mother +is to keep her straight, living as she does, is more than I know. +How she keeps her in that school is a mystery. There's apt to +be a scandal here at any time. I'm very sure the girl doesn't +know anything about her mother's business. She never lets her +come out here." + +"Berenice Fleming," Cowperwood thought to himself. "What a pleasing +name, and what a peculiar handicap in life." + +"How old is the daughter now?" he inquired. + +"Oh, she must be about fifteen--not more than that." + +When they reached the house, which was located in a rather somber, +treeless street, Cowperwood was surprised to find the interior +spacious and tastefully furnished. Presently Mrs. Carter, as she +was generally known in society, or Hattie Starr, as she was known +to a less satisfying world, appeared. Cowperwood realized at once +that he was in the presence of a woman who, whatever her present +occupation, was not without marked evidences of refinement. She +was exceedingly intelligent, if not highly intellectual, trig, +vivacious, anything but commonplace. A certain spirited undulation +in her walk, a seeming gay, frank indifference to her position in +life, an obvious accustomedness to polite surroundings took his +fancy. Her hair was built up in a loose Frenchy way, after the +fashion of the empire, and her cheeks were slightly mottled with +red veins. Her color was too high, and yet it was not utterly +unbecoming. She had friendly gray-blue eyes, which went well with +her light-brown hair; along with a pink flowered house-gown, which +became her fulling figure, she wore pearls. + +"The widow of two husbands," thought Cowperwood; "the mother of two +children!" With the Colonel's easy introduction began a light +conversation. Mrs. Carter gracefully persisted that she had known +of Cowperwood for some time. His strenuous street-railway operations +were more or less familiar to her. + +"It would be nice," she suggested, "since Mr. Cowperwood is here, +if we invited Grace Deming to call." + +The latter was a favorite of the Colonel's. + +"I would be very glad if I could talk to Mrs. Carter," gallantly +volunteered Cowperwood--he scarcely knew why. He was curious to +learn more of her history. On subsequent occasions, and in more +extended conversation with the Colonel, it was retailed to him in +full. + +Nannie Hedden, or Mrs. John Alexander Fleming, or Mrs. Ira George +Carter, or Hattie Starr, was by birth a descendant of a long line +of Virginia and Kentucky Heddens and Colters, related in a definite +or vague way to half the aristocracy of four or five of the +surrounding states. Now, although still a woman of brilliant +parts, she was the keeper of a select house of assignation in this +meager city of perhaps two hundred thousand population. How had +it happened? How could it possibly have come about? She had been +in her day a reigning beauty. She had been born to money and had +married money. Her first husband, John Alexander Fleming, who had +inherited wealth, tastes, privileges, and vices from a long line +of slave-holding, tobacco-growing Flemings, was a charming man +of the Kentucky-Virginia society type. He had been trained in the +law with a view to entering the diplomatic service, but, being an +idler by nature, had never done so. Instead, horse-raising, +horse-racing, philandering, dancing, hunting, and the like, had +taken up his time. When their wedding took place the Kentucky-Virginia +society world considered it a great match. There was wealth on +both sides. Then came much more of that idle social whirl which +had produced the marriage. Even philanderings of a very vital +character were not barred, though deception, in some degree at +least, would be necessary. As a natural result there followed the +appearance in the mountains of North Carolina during a charming +autumn outing of a gay young spark by the name of Tucker Tanner, +and the bestowal on him by the beautiful Nannie Fleming--as she +was then called--of her temporary affections. Kind friends were +quick to report what Fleming himself did not see, and Fleming, +roue that he was, encountering young Mr. Tanner on a high mountain +road one evening, said to him, "You get out of this party by night, +or I will let daylight through you in the morning." Tucker Tanner, +realizing that however senseless and unfair the exaggerated chivalry +of the South might be, the end would be bullets just the same, +departed. Mrs. Fleming, disturbed but unrepentant, considered +herself greatly abused. There was much scandal. Then came quarrels, +drinking on both sides, finally a divorce. Mr. Tucker Tanner did +not appear to claim his damaged love, but the aforementioned Ira +George Carter, a penniless never-do-well of the same generation +and social standing, offered himself and was accepted. By the +first marriage there had been one child, a girl. By the second +there was another child, a boy. Ira George Carter, before the +children were old enough to impress Mrs. Carter with the importance +of their needs or her own affection for them, had squandered, in +one ridiculous venture after another, the bulk of the property +willed to her by her father, Major Wickham Hedden. Ultimately, +after drunkenness and dissipation on the husband's side, and finally +his death, came the approach of poverty. Mrs. Carter was not +practical, and still passionate and inclined to dissipation. +However, the aimless, fatuous going to pieces of Ira George Carter, +the looming pathos of the future of the children, and a growing +sense of affection and responsibility had finally sobered her. +The lure of love and life had not entirely disappeared, but her +chance of sipping at those crystal founts had grown sadly slender. +A woman of thirty-eight and still possessing some beauty, she +was not content to eat the husks provided for the unworthy. Her +gorge rose at the thought of that neglected state into which the +pariahs of society fall and on which the inexperienced so cheerfully +comment. Neglected by her own set, shunned by the respectable, +her fortune quite gone, she was nevertheless determined that she +would not be a back-street seamstress or a pensioner upon the +bounty of quondam friends. By insensible degrees came first +unhallowed relationships through friendship and passing passion, +then a curious intermediate state between the high world of fashion +and the half world of harlotry, until, finally, in Louisville, she +had become, not openly, but actually, the mistress of a house of +ill repute. Men who knew how these things were done, and who were +consulting their own convenience far more than her welfare, suggested +the advisability of it. Three or four friends like Colonel Gillis +wished rooms--convenient place in which to loaf, gamble, and bring +their women. Hattie Starr was her name now, and as such she had +even become known in a vague way to the police--but only vaguely +--as a woman whose home was suspiciously gay on occasions. + +Cowperwood, with his appetite for the wonders of life, his +appreciation of the dramas which produce either failure or success, +could not help being interested in this spoiled woman who was +sailing so vaguely the seas of chance. Colonel Gillis once said +that with some strong man to back her, Nannie Fleming could be put +back into society. She had a pleasant appeal--she and her two +children, of whom she never spoke. After a few visits to her home +Cowperwood spent hours talking with Mrs. Carter whenever he was +in Louisville. On one occasion, as they were entering her boudoir, +she picked up a photograph of her daughter from the dresser and +dropped it into a drawer. Cowperwood had never seen this picture +before. It was that of a girl of fifteen or sixteen, of whom he +obtained but the most fleeting glance. Yet, with that instinct +for the essential and vital which invariably possessed him, he +gained a keen impression of it. It was of a delicately haggard +child with a marvelously agreeable smile, a fine, high-poised head +upon a thin neck, and an air of bored superiority. Combined with +this was a touch of weariness about the eyelids which drooped in +a lofty way. Cowperwood was fascinated. Because of the daughter +he professed an interest in the mother, which he really did not +feel. + +A little later Cowperwood was moved to definite action by the +discovery in a photographer's window in Louisville of a second +picture of Berenice--a rather large affair which Mrs. Carter had +had enlarged from a print sent her by her daughter some time before. +Berenice was standing rather indifferently posed at the corner of +a colonial mantel, a soft straw outing-hat held negligently in one +hand, one hip sunk lower than the other, a faint, elusive smile +playing dimly around her mouth. The smile was really not a smile, +but only the wraith of one, and the eyes were wide, disingenuous, +mock-simple. The picture because of its simplicity, appealed to +him. He did not know that Mrs. Carter had never sanctioned its +display. "A personage," was Cowperwood's comment to himself, and +he walked into the photographer's office to see what could be done +about its removal and the destruction of the plates. A half-hundred +dollars, he found, would arrange it all--plates, prints, everything. +Since by this ruse he secured a picture for himself, he promptly +had it framed and hung in his Chicago rooms, where sometimes of +an afternoon when he was hurrying to change his clothes he stopped +to look at it. With each succeeding examination his admiration +and curiosity grew. Here was perhaps, he thought, the true society +woman, the high-born lady, the realization of that ideal which Mrs. +Merrill and many another grande dame had suggested. + +It was not so long after this again that, chancing to be in +Louisville, he discovered Mrs. Carter in a very troubled social +condition. Her affairs had received a severe setback. A certain +Major Hagenback, a citizen of considerable prominence, had died +in her home under peculiar circumstances. He was a man of wealth, +married, and nominally living with his wife in Lexington. As a +matter of fact, he spent very little time there, and at the time +of his death of heart failure was leading a pleasurable existence +with a Miss Trent, an actress, whom he had introduced to Mrs. +Carter as his friend. The police, through a talkative deputy +coroner, were made aware of all the facts. Pictures of Miss Trent, +Mrs. Carter, Major Hagenback, his wife, and many curious details +concerning Mrs. Carter's home were about to appear in the papers +when Colonel Gillis and others who were powerful socially and +politically interfered; the affair was hushed up, but Mrs. Carter +was in distress. This was more than she had bargained for. + +Her quondam friends were frightened away for the nonce. She herself +had lost courage. When Cowperwood saw her she had been in the +very human act of crying, and her eyes were red. + +"Well, well," he commented, on seeing her--she was in moody gray +in the bargain--"you don't mean to tell me you're worrying about +anything, are you?" + +"Oh, Mr. Cowperwood," she explained, pathetically, "I have had so +much trouble since I saw you. You heard of Major Hagenback's +death, didn't you?" Cowperwood, who had heard something of the +story from Colonel Gillis, nodded. "Well, I have just been notified +by the police that I will have to move, and the landlord has given +me notice, too. If it just weren't for my two children--" + +She dabbed at her eyes pathetically. + +Cowperwood meditated interestedly. + +"Haven't you any place you can go?" he asked. + +"I have a summer place in Pennsylvania," she confessed; "but I +can't go there very well in February. Besides, it's my living I'm +worrying about. I have only this to depend on." + +She waved her hand inclusively toward the various rooms. "Don't +you own that place in Pennsylvania?" he inquired. + +"Yes, but it isn't worth much, and I couldn't sell it. I've been +trying to do that anyhow for some time, because Berenice is getting +tired of it." + +"And haven't you any money laid away?" + +"It's taken all I have to run this place and keep the children in +school. I've been trying to give Berenice and Rolfe a chance to +do something for themselves." + +At the repetition of Berenice's name Cowperwood consulted his own +interest or mood in the matter. A little assistance for her would +not bother him much. Besides, it would probably eventually bring +about a meeting with the daughter. + +"Why don't you clear out of this?" he observed, finally. "It's +no business to be in, anyhow, if you have any regard for your +children. They can't survive anything like this. You want to put +your daughter back in society, don't you?" + +"Oh yes," almost pleaded Mrs. Carter. + +"Precisely," commented Cowperwood, who, when he was thinking, +almost invariably dropped into a short, cold, curt, business manner. +Yet he was humanely inclined in this instance. + +"Well, then, why not live in your Pennsylvania place for the +present, or, if not that, go to New York? You can't stay here. +Ship or sell these things." He waved a hand toward the rooms. + +"I would only too gladly," replied Mrs. Carter, "if I knew what +to do." + +"Take my advice and go to New York for the present. You will get +rid of your expenses here, and I will help you with the rest--for +the present, anyhow. You can get a start again. It is too bad +about these children of yours. I will take care of the boy as +soon as he is old enough. As for Berenice"--he used her name +softly--"if she can stay in her school until she is nineteen or +twenty the chances are that she will make social connections which +will save her nicely. The thing for you to do is to avoid meeting +any of this old crowd out here in the future if you can. It might +be advisable to take her abroad for a time after she leaves school." + +"Yes, if I just could," sighed Mrs. Carter, rather lamely. + +"Well, do what I suggest now, and we will see," observed Cowperwood. +"It would be a pity if your two children were to have their lives +ruined by such an accident as this." + +Mrs. Carter, realizing that here, in the shape of Cowperwood, if +he chose to be generous, was the open way out of a lowering dungeon +of misery, was inclined to give vent to a bit of grateful emotion, +but, finding him subtly remote, restrained herself. His manner, +while warmly generous at times, was also easily distant, except +when he wished it to be otherwise. Just now he was thinking of +the high soul of Berenice Fleming and of its possible value to him. + + + + +Chapter XLI + + + +The Daughter of Mrs. Fleming + +Berenice Fleming, at the time Cowperwood first encountered her +mother, was an inmate of the Misses Brewster's School for Girls, +then on Riverside Drive, New York, and one of the most exclusive +establishments of its kind in America. The social prestige and +connections of the Heddens, Flemings, and Carters were sufficient +to gain her this introduction, though the social fortunes of her +mother were already at this time on the down grade. A tall girl, +delicately haggard, as he had imagined her, with reddish-bronze +hair of a tinge but distantly allied to that of Aileen's, she was +unlike any woman Cowperwood had ever known. Even at seventeen she +stood up and out with an inexplicable superiority which brought +her the feverish and exotic attention of lesser personalities whose +emotional animality found an outlet in swinging a censer at her +shrine. + +A strange maiden, decidedly! Even at this age, when she was, as +one might suppose, a mere slip of a girl, she was deeply conscious +of herself, her sex, her significance, her possible social import. +Armed with a fair skin, a few freckles, an almost too high color +at times, strange, deep, night-blue, cat-like eyes, a long nose, +a rather pleasant mouth, perfect teeth, and a really good chin, +she moved always with a feline grace that was careless, superior, +sinuous, and yet the acme of harmony and a rhythmic flow of lines. +One of her mess-hall tricks, when unobserved by her instructors, +was to walk with six plates and a water-pitcher all gracefully +poised on the top of her head after the fashion of the Asiatic and +the African, her hips moving, her shoulders, neck, and head still. +Girls begged weeks on end to have her repeat this "stunt," as +they called it. Another was to put her arms behind her and with +a rush imitate the Winged Victory, a copy of which graced the +library hall. + +"You know," one little rosy-cheeked satellite used to urge on her, +adoringly, "she must have been like you. Her head must have been +like yours. You are lovely when you do it." + +For answer Berenice's deep, almost black-blue eyes turned on her +admirer with solemn unflattered consideration. She awed always +by the something that she did not say. + +The school, for all the noble dames who presided over it--solemn, +inexperienced owl-like conventionalists who insisted on the last +tittle and jot of order and procedure--was a joke to Berenice. +She recognized the value of its social import, but even at fifteen +and sixteen she was superior to it. She was superior to her +superiors and to the specimens of maidenhood--supposed to be perfect +socially--who gathered about to hear her talk, to hear her sing, +declaim, or imitate. She was deeply, dramatically, urgently +conscious of the value of her personality in itself, not as connected +with any inherited social standing, but of its innate worth, and +of the artistry and wonder of her body. One of her chief delights +was to walk alone in her room--sometimes at night, the lamp out, +the moon perhaps faintly illuminating her chamber--and to pose and +survey her body, and dance in some naive, graceful, airy Greek way +a dance that was singularly free from sex consciousness--and yet +was it? She was conscious of her body--of every inch of it--under +the ivory-white clothes which she frequently wore. Once she wrote +in a secret diary which she maintained--another art impulse or +an affectation, as you will: "My skin is so wonderful. It tingles +so with rich life. I love it and my strong muscles underneath. +I love my hands and my hair and my eyes. My hands are long and +thin and delicate; my eyes are a dark, deep blue; my hair is a +brown, rusty red, thick and sleepy. My long, firm, untired limbs +can dance all night. Oh, I love life! I love life!" + +You would not have called Berenice Fleming sensuous--though she +was--because she was self-controlled. Her eyes lied to you. They +lied to all the world. They looked you through and through with +a calm savoir faire, a mocking defiance, which said with a faint +curl of the lips, barely suggested to help them out, "You cannot +read me, you cannot read me." She put her head to one side, smiled, +lied (by implication), assumed that there was nothing. And there +was nothing, as yet. Yet there was something, too--her inmost +convictions, and these she took good care to conceal. The world +--how little it should ever, ever know! How little it ever could +know truly! + +The first time Cowperwood encountered this Circe daughter of so +unfortunate a mother was on the occasion of a trip to New York, +the second spring following his introduction to Mrs. Carter in +Louisville. Berenice was taking some part in the closing exercises +of the Brewster School, and Mrs. Carter, with Cowperwood for an +escort, decided to go East. Cowperwood having located himself at +the Netherlands, and Mrs. Carter at the much humbler Grenoble, +they journeyed together to visit this paragon whose picture he had +had hanging in his rooms in Chicago for months past. When they +were introduced into the somewhat somber reception parlor of the +Brewster School, Berenice came slipping in after a few moments, a +noiseless figure of a girl, tall and slim, and deliciously sinuous. +Cowperwood saw at first glance that she fulfilled all the promise +of her picture, and was delighted. She had, he thought, a strange, +shrewd, intelligent smile, which, however, was girlish and friendly. +Without so much as a glance in his direction she came forward, +extending her arms and hands in an inimitable histrionic manner, +and exclaimed, with a practised and yet natural inflection: "Mother, +dear! So here you are really! You know, I've been thinking of you +all morning. I wasn't sure whether you would come to-day, you +change about so. I think I even dreamed of you last night." + +Her skirts, still worn just below the shoe-tops, had the richness +of scraping silk then fashionable. She was also guilty of using +a faint perfume of some kind. + +Cowperwood could see that Mrs. Carter, despite a certain nervousness +due to the girl's superior individuality and his presence, was +very proud of her. Berenice, he also saw quickly, was measuring +him out of the tail of her eye--a single sweeping glance which she +vouchsafed from beneath her long lashes sufficing; but she gathered +quite accurately the totality of Cowperwood's age, force, grace, +wealth, and worldly ability. Without hesitation she classed him +as a man of power in some field, possibly finance, one of the +numerous able men whom her mother seemed to know. She always +wondered about her mother. His large gray eyes, that searched +her with lightning accuracy, appealed to her as pleasant, able +eyes. She knew on the instant, young as she was, that he liked +women, and that probably he would think her charming; but as for +giving him additional attention it was outside her code. She +preferred to be interested in her dear mother exclusively. + +"Berenice," observed Mrs. Carter, airily, "let me introduce Mr. +Cowperwood." + +Berenice turned, and for the fraction of a second leveled a frank +and yet condescending glance from wells of what Cowperwood considered +to be indigo blue. + +"Your mother has spoken of you from time to time," he said, +pleasantly. + +She withdrew a cool, thin hand as limp and soft as wax, and turned +to her mother again without comment, and yet without the least +embarrassment. Cowperwood seemed in no way important to her. + +"What would you say, dear," pursued Mrs. Carter, after a brief +exchange of commonplaces, "if I were to spend next winter in New +York?" + +"It would be charming if I could live at home. I'm sick of this +silly boarding-school." + +"Why, Berenice! I thought you liked it." + +"I hate it, but only because it's so dull. The girls here are so +silly." + +Mrs. Carter lifted her eyebrows as much as to say to her escort, +"Now what do you think?" Cowperwood stood solemnly by. It was not +for him to make a suggestion at present. He could see that for +some reason--probably because of her disordered life--Mrs. Carter +was playing a game of manners with her daughter; she maintained +always a lofty, romantic air. With Berenice it was natural--the +expression of a vain, self-conscious, superior disposition. + +"A rather charming garden here," he observed, lifting a curtain +and looking out into a blooming plot. + +"Yes, the flowers are nice," commented Berenice. + +"Wait; I'll get some for you. It's against the rules, but they +can't do more than send me away, and that's what I want." + +"Berenice! Come back here!" + +It was Mrs. Carter calling. + +The daughter was gone in a fling of graceful lines and flounces. +"Now what do you make of her?" asked Mrs. Carter, turning to her +friend. + +"Youth, individuality, energy--a hundred things. I see nothing +wrong with her." + +"If I could only see to it that she had her opportunities unspoiled." + +Already Berenice was returning, a subject for an artist in almost +studied lines. Her arms were full of sweet-peas and roses which +she had ruthlessly gathered. + +"You wilful girl!" scolded her mother, indulgently. "I shall have +to go and explain to your superiors. Whatever shall I do with +her, Mr. Cowperwood?" + +"Load her with daisy chains and transport her to Cytherea," commented +Cowperwood, who had once visited this romantic isle, and therefore +knew its significance. + +Berenice paused. "What a pretty speech that is!" she exclaimed. +"I have a notion to give you a special flower for that. I will, +too." She presented him with a rose. + +For a girl who had slipped in shy and still, Cowperwood commented, +her mood had certainly changed. Still, this was the privilege of +the born actress, to change. And as he viewed Berenice Fleming +now he felt her to be such--a born actress, lissome, subtle, wise, +indifferent, superior, taking the world as she found it and expecting +it to obey--to sit up like a pet dog and be told to beg. What a +charming character! What a pity it should not be allowed to bloom +undisturbed in its make-believe garden! What a pity, indeed! + + + + +Chapter XLII + + + +F. A. Cowperwood, Guardian + +It was some time after this first encounter before Cowperwood saw +Berenice again, and then only for a few days in that region of the +Pocono Mountains where Mrs. Carter had her summer home. It was +an idyllic spot on a mountainside, some three miles from Stroudsburg, +among a peculiar juxtaposition of hills which, from the comfortable +recesses of a front veranda, had the appearance, as Mrs. Carter +was fond of explaining, of elephants and camels parading in the +distance. The humps of the hills--some of them as high as eighteen +hundred feet--rose stately and green. Below, quite visible for a +mile or more, moved the dusty, white road descending to Stroudsburg. +Out of her Louisville earnings Mrs. Carter had managed to employ, +for the several summer seasons she had been here, a gardener, who +kept the sloping front lawn in seasonable flowers. There was a +trig two-wheeled trap with a smart horse and harness, and both +Rolfe and Berenice were possessed of the latest novelty of the +day--low-wheeled bicycles, which had just then superseded the old, +high-wheel variety. For Berenice, also, was a music-rack full of +classic music and song collections, a piano, a shelf of favorite +books, painting-materials, various athletic implements, and several +types of Greek dancing-tunics which she had designed herself, +including sandals and fillet for her hair. She was an idle, +reflective, erotic person dreaming strange dreams of a near and +yet far-off social supremacy, at other times busying herself with +such social opportunities as came to her. A more safely calculating +and yet wilful girl than Berenice Fleming would have been hard to +find. By some trick of mental adjustment she had gained a clear +prevision of how necessary it was to select the right socially, +and to conceal her true motives and feelings; and yet she was by +no means a snob, mentally, nor utterly calculating. Certain things +in her own and in her mother's life troubled her--quarrels in her +early days, from her seventh to her eleventh year, between her +mother and her stepfather, Mr. Carter; the latter's drunkenness +verging upon delirium tremens at times; movings from one place to +another--all sorts of sordid and depressing happenings. Berenice +had been an impressionable child. Some things had gripped her +memory mightily--once, for instance, when she had seen her stepfather, +in the presence of her governess, kick a table over, and, seizing +the toppling lamp with demoniac skill, hurl it through a window. +She, herself, had been tossed by him in one of these tantrums, +when, in answer to the cries of terror of those about her, he had +shouted: "Let her fall! It won't hurt the little devil to break a +few bones." This was her keenest memory of her stepfather, and it +rather softened her judgment of her mother, made her sympathetic +with her when she was inclined to be critical. Of her own father +she only knew that he had divorced her mother--why, she could not +say. She liked her mother on many counts, though she could not +feel that she actually loved her--Mrs. Carter was too fatuous at +times, and at other times too restrained. This house at Pocono, +or Forest Edge, as Mrs. Carter had named it, was conducted after +a peculiar fashion. From June to October only it was open, Mrs. +Carter, in the past, having returned to Louisville at that time, +while Berenice and Rolfe went back to their respective schools. +Rolfe was a cheerful, pleasant-mannered youth, well bred, genial, +and courteous, but not very brilliant intellectually. Cowperwood's +judgment of him the first time he saw him was that under ordinary +circumstances he would make a good confidential clerk, possibly +in a bank. Berenice, on the other hand, the child of the first +husband, was a creature of an exotic mind and an opalescent heart. +After his first contact with her in the reception-room of the +Brewster School Cowperwood was deeply conscious of the import of +this budding character. He was by now so familiar with types +and kinds of women that an exceptional type--quite like an exceptional +horse to a judge of horse-flesh--stood out in his mind with singular +vividness. Quite as in some great racing-stable an ambitious +horseman might imagine that he detected in some likely filly the +signs and lineaments of the future winner of a Derby, so in +Berenice Fleming, in the quiet precincts of the Brewster School, +Cowperwood previsioned the central figure of a Newport lawn fete +or a London drawing-room. Why? She had the air, the grace, the +lineage, the blood--that was why; and on that score she appealed +to him intensely, quite as no other woman before had ever done. + +It was on the lawn of Forest Edge that Cowperwood now saw Berenice. +The latter had had the gardener set up a tall pole, to which was +attached a tennis-ball by a cord, and she and Rolfe were hard at +work on a game of tether-ball. Cowperwood, after a telegram to +Mrs. Carter, had been met at the station in Pocono by her and +rapidly driven out to the house. The green hills pleased him, the +up-winding, yellow road, the silver-gray cottage with the brown-shingle +roof in the distance. It was three in the afternoon, and bright +for a sinking sun. + +"There they are now," observed Mrs. Carter, cheerful and smiling, +as they came out from under a low ledge that skirted the road a +little way from the cottage. Berenice, executing a tripping, +running step to one side, was striking the tethered ball with her +racquet. "They are hard at it, as usual. Two such romps!" + +She surveyed them with pleased motherly interest, which Cowperwood +considered did her much credit. He was thinking that it would be +too bad if her hopes for her children should not be realized. Yet +possibly they might not be. Life was very grim. How strange, he +thought, was this type of woman--at once a sympathetic, affectionate +mother and a panderer to the vices of men. How strange that she +should have these children at all. Berenice had on a white skirt, +white tennis-shoes, a pale-cream silk waist or blouse, which fitted +her very loosely. Because of exercise her color was high--quite +pink--and her dusty, reddish hair was blowy. Though they turned +into the hedge gate and drove to the west entrance, which was at +one side of the house, there was no cessation of the game, not +even a glance from Berenice, so busy was she. + +He was merely her mother's friend to her. Cowperwood noted, with +singular vividness of feeling, that the lines of her movements--the +fleeting, momentary positions she assumed--were full of a wondrous +natural charm. He wanted to say so to Mrs. Carter, but restrained +himself. + +"It's a brisk game," he commented, with a pleased glance. "You +play, do you?" + +"Oh, I did. I don't much any more. Sometimes I try a set with +Rolfe or Bevy; but they both beat me so badly." + +"Bevy? Who is Bevy?" + +"Oh, that's short of Berenice. It's what Rolfe called her when +he was a baby." + +"Bevy! I think that rather nice." + +"I always like it, too. Somehow it seems to suit her, and yet I +don't know why." + +Before dinner Berenice made her appearance, freshened by a bath +and clad in a light summer dress that appeared to Cowperwood to +be all flounces, and the more graceful in its lines for the +problematic absence of a corset. Her face and hands, however--a +face thin, long, and sweetly hollow, and hands that were slim and +sinewy--gripped and held his fancy. He was reminded in the least +degree of Stephanie; but this girl's chin was firmer and more +delicately, though more aggressively, rounded. Her eyes, too, +were shrewder and less evasive, though subtle enough. + +"So I meet you again," he observed, with a somewhat aloof air, as +she came out on the porch and sank listlessly into a wicker chair. + "The last time I met you you were hard at work in New York." + +"Breaking the rules. No, I forget; that was my easiest work. Oh, +Rolfe," she called over her shoulder, indifferently, "I see your +pocket-knife out on the grass." + +Cowperwood, properly suppressed, waited a brief space. "Who won +that exciting game?" + +"I did, of course. I always win at tether-ball." + +"Oh, do you?" commented Cowperwood. + +"I mean with brother, of course. He plays so poorly." She turned +to the west--the house faced south--and studied the road which +came up from Stroudsburg. "I do believe that's Harry Kemp," she +added, quite to herself. "If so, he'll have my mail, if there is +any." + +She got up again and disappeared into the house, coming out a few +moments later to saunter down to the gate, which was over a hundred +feet away. To Cowperwood she seemed to float, so hale and graceful +was she. A smart youth in blue serge coat, white trousers, and +white shoes drove by in a high-seated trap. + +"Two letters for you," he called, in a high, almost falsetto voice. +"I thought you would have eight or nine. Blessed hot, isn't it?" +He had a smart though somewhat effeminate manner, and Cowperwood +at once wrote him down as an ass. Berenice took the mail with an +engaging smile. She sauntered past him reading, without so much +as a glance. Presently he heard her voice within. + +"Mother, the Haggertys have invited me for the last week in August. +I have half a mind to cut Tuxedo and go. I like Bess Haggerty." + +"Well, you'll have to decide that, dearest. Are they going to be +at Tarrytown or Loon Lake?" + +"Loon Lake, of course," came Berenice's voice. + +What a world of social doings she was involved in, thought Cowperwood. +She had begun well. The Haggertys were rich coal-mine operators +in Pennsylvania. Harris Haggerty, to whose family she was probably +referring, was worth at least six or eight million. The social +world they moved in was high. + +They drove after dinner to The Saddler, at Saddler's Run, where a +dance and "moonlight promenade" was to be given. On the way over, +owing to the remoteness of Berenice, Cowperwood for the first time +in his life felt himself to be getting old. In spite of the vigor +of his mind and body, he realized constantly that he was over +fifty-two, while she was only seventeen. Why should this lure of +youth continue to possess him? She wore a white concoction of lace +and silk which showed a pair of smooth young shoulders and a slender, +queenly, inimitably modeled neck. He could tell by the sleek lines +of her arms how strong she was. + +"It is perhaps too late," he said to himself, in comment. "I am +getting old." + +The freshness of the hills in the pale night was sad. + +Saddler's, when they reached there after ten, was crowded with the +youth and beauty of the vicinity. Mrs. Carter, who was prepossessing +in a ball costume of silver and old rose, expected that Cowperwood +would dance with her. And he did, but all the time his eyes were +on Berenice, who was caught up by one youth and another of dapper +mien during the progress of the evening and carried rhythmically +by in the mazes of the waltz or schottische. There was a new dance +in vogue that involved a gay, running step--kicking first one foot +and then the other forward, turning and running backward and kicking +again, and then swinging with a smart air, back to back, with one's +partner. Berenice, in her lithe, rhythmic way, seemed to him the +soul of spirited and gracious ease--unconscious of everybody and +everything save the spirit of the dance itself as a medium of sweet +emotion, of some far-off, dreamlike spirit of gaiety. He wondered. +He was deeply impressed. + +"Berenice," observed Mrs. Carter, when in an intermission she came +forward to where Cowperwood and she were sitting in the moonlight +discussing New York and Kentucky social life, "haven't you saved +one dance for Mr. Cowperwood?" + +Cowperwood, with a momentary feeling of resentment, protested that +he did not care to dance any more. Mrs. Carter, he observed to +himself, was a fool. + +"I believe," said her daughter, with a languid air, "that I am +full up. I could break one engagement, though, somewhere." + +"Not for me, though, please," pleaded Cowperwood. "I don't care +to dance any more, thank you." + +He almost hated her at the moment for a chilly cat. And yet he +did not. + +"Why, Bevy, how you talk! I think you are acting very badly this +evening." + +"Please, please," pleaded Cowperwood, quite sharply. "Not any +more. I don't care to dance any more." + +Bevy looked at him oddly for a moment--a single thoughtful glance. + +"But I have a dance, though," she pleaded, softly. "I was just +teasing. Won't you dance it with me? + +"I can't refuse, of course," replied Cowperwood, coldly. + +"It's the next one," she replied. + +They danced, but he scarcely softened to her at first, so angry +was he. Somehow, because of all that had gone before, he felt +stiff and ungainly. She had managed to break in upon his natural +savoir faire--this chit of a girl. But as they went on through a +second half the spirit of her dancing soul caught him, and he felt +more at ease, quite rhythmic. She drew close and swept him into +a strange unison with herself. + +"You dance beautifully," he said. + +"I love it," she replied. She was already of an agreeable height +for him. + +It was soon over. "I wish you would take me where the ices are," +she said to Cowperwood. + +He led her, half amused, half disturbed at her attitude toward him. + +"You are having a pleasant time teasing me, aren't you?" he asked. + +"I am only tired," she replied. "The evening bores me. Really +it does. I wish we were all home." + +"We can go when you say, no doubt." + +As they reached the ices, and she took one from his hand, she +surveyed him with those cool, dull blue eyes of hers--eyes that +had the flat quality of unglazed Dutch tiles. + +"I wish you would forgive me," she said. "I was rude. I couldn't +help it. I am all out of sorts with myself." + +"I hadn't felt you were rude," he observed, lying grandly, his +mood toward her changing entirely. + +"Oh yes I was, and I hope you will forgive me. I sincerely wish +you would." + +"I do with all my heart--the little that there is to forgive." + +He waited to take her back, and yielded her to a youth who was +waiting. He watched her trip away in a dance, and eventually led +her mother to the trap. Berenice was not with them on the home +drive; some one else was bringing her. Cowperwood wondered when +she would come, and where was her room, and whether she was really +sorry,and-- As he fell asleep Berenice Fleming and her slate-blue +eyes were filling his mind completely. + + + + +Chapter XLIII + + + +The Planet Mars + +The banking hostility to Cowperwood, which in its beginning had +made necessary his trip to Kentucky and elsewhere, finally reached +a climax. It followed an attempt on his part to furnish funds for +the building of elevated roads. The hour for this new form of +transit convenience had struck. The public demanded it. Cowperwood +saw one elevated road, the South Side Alley Line, being built, and +another, the West Side Metropolitan Line, being proposed, largely, +as he knew, in order to create sentiment for the idea, and so to +make his opposition to a general franchise difficult. He was well +aware that if he did not choose to build them others would. It +mattered little that electricity had arrived finally as a perfected +traction factor, and that all his lines would soon have to be done +over to meet that condition, or that it was costing him thousands +and thousands to stay the threatening aspect of things politically. +In addition he must now plunge into this new realm, gaining +franchises by the roughest and subtlest forms of political bribery. +The most serious aspect of this was not political, but rather +financial. Elevated roads in Chicago, owing to the sparseness of +the population over large areas, were a serious thing to contemplate. +The mere cost of iron, right of way, rolling-stock, and power-plants +was immense. Being chronically opposed to investing his private +funds where stocks could just as well be unloaded on the public, +and the management and control retained by him, Cowperwood, for +the time being, was puzzled as to where he should get credit for +the millions to be laid down in structural steel, engineering fees, +labor, and equipment before ever a dollar could be taken out in +passenger fares. Owing to the advent of the World's Fair, the +South Side 'L'--to which, in order to have peace and quiet, he had +finally conceded a franchise--was doing reasonably well. Yet it +was not making any such return on the investment as the New York +roads. The new lines which he was preparing would traverse even +less populous sections of the city, and would in all likelihood +yield even a smaller return. Money had to be forthcoming--something +between twelve and fifteen million dollars--and this on the stocks +and bonds of a purely paper corporation which might not yield +paying dividends for years to come. Addison, finding that the +Chicago Trust Company was already heavily loaded, called upon +various minor but prosperous local banks to take over the new +securities (each in part, of course). He was astonished and +chagrined to find that one and all uniformly refused. + +"I'll tell you how it is, Judah," one bank president confided to +him, in great secrecy. "We owe Timothy Arneel at least three +hundred thousand dollars that we only have to pay three per cent. +for. It's a call-loan. Besides, the Lake National is our main +standby when it comes to quick trades, and he's in on that. I +understand from one or two friends that he's at outs with Cowperwood, +and we can't afford to offend him. I'd like to, but no more for +me--not at present, anyhow." + +"Why, Simmons," replied Addison, "these fellows are simply cutting +off their noses to spite their faces. These stock and bond issues +are perfectly good investments, and no one knows it better than +you do. All this hue and cry in the newspapers against Cowperwood +doesn't amount to anything. He's perfectly solvent. Chicago is +growing. His lines are becoming more valuable every year." + +"I know that," replied Simmons. "But what about this talk of a +rival elevated system? Won't that injure his lines for the time +being, anyhow, if it comes into the field?" + +"If I know anything about Cowperwood," replied Addison, simply, +"there isn't going to be any rival elevated road. It's true they +got the city council to give them a franchise for one line on the +South Side; but that's out of his territory, anyhow, and that other +one to the Chicago General Company doesn't amount to anything. +It will be years and years before it can be made to pay a dollar, +and when the time comes he will probably take it over if he wants +it. Another election will be held in two years, and then the city +administration may not be so unfavorable. As it is, they haven't +been able to hurt him through the council as much as they thought +they would." + +"Yes; but he lost the election." + +"True; but it doesn't follow he's going to lose the next one, or +every one." + +"Just the same," replied Simmons, very secretively, "I understand +there's a concerted effort on to drive him out. Schryhart, Hand, +Merrill, Arneel--they're the most powerful men we have. I understand +Hand says that he'll never get his franchises renewed except on +terms that'll make his lines unprofitable. There's going to be +an awful smash here one of these days if that's true." Mr. Simmons +looked very wise and solemn. + +"Never believe it," replied Addison, contemptuously. "Hand isn't +Chicago, neither is Schryhart, nor Arneel. Cowperwood is a brainy +man. He isn't going to be put under so easily. Did you ever hear +what was the real bottom cause of all this disturbance?" + +"Yes, I've heard," replied Simmons. + +"Do you believe it?" + +"Oh, I don't know. Yes, I suppose I do. Still, I don't know that +that need have anything to do with it. Money envy is enough to +make any man fight. This man Hand is very powerful." + +Not long after this Cowperwood, strolling into the president's +office of the Chicago Trust Company, inquired: "Well, Judah, how +about those Northwestern 'L' bonds?" + +"It's just as I thought, Frank," replied Addison, softly. "We'll +have to go outside of Chicago for that money. Hand, Arneel, and +the rest of that crowd have decided to combine against us. That's +plain. Something has started them off in full cry. I suppose my +resignation may have had something to do with it. Anyhow, every +one of the banks in which they have any hand has uniformly refused +to come in. To make sure that I was right I even called up the +little old Third National of Lake View and the Drovers and Traders +on Forty-seventh Street. That's Charlie Wallin's bank. When I +was over in the Lake National he used to hang around the back door +asking for anything I could give him that was sound. Now he says +his orders are from his directors not to share in anything we have +to offer. It's the same story everywhere--they daren't. I asked +Wallin if he knew why the directors were down on the Chicago Trust +or on you, and at first he said he didn't. Then he said he'd stop +in and lunch with me some day. They're the silliest lot of old +ostriches I ever heard of. As if refusing to let us have money on +any loan here was going to prevent us from getting it! They can +take their little old one-horse banks and play blockhouses with +them if they want to. I can go to New York and in thirty-six hours +raise twenty million dollars if we need it." + +Addison was a little warm. It was a new experience for him. +Cowperwood merely curled his mustaches and smiled sardonically. + +"Well, never mind," he said. "Will you go down to New York, or +shall I?" + +It was decided, after some talk, that Addison should go. When he +reached New York he found, to his surprise, that the local opposition +to Cowperwood had, for some mysterious reason, begun to take root +in the East. + +"I'll tell you how it is," observed Joseph Haeckelheimer, to whom +Addison applied--a short, smug, pussy person who was the head of +Haeckelheimer, Gotloeb & Co., international bankers. "We hear odd +things concerning Mr. Cowperwood out in Chicago. Some people say +he is sound--some not. He has some very good franchises covering +a large portion of the city, but they are only twenty-year franchises, +and they will all run out by 1903 at the latest. As I understand +it, he has managed to stir up all the local elements--some very +powerful ones, too--and he is certain to have a hard time to get +his franchises renewed. I don't live in Chicago, of course. I +don't know much about it, but our Western correspondent tells me +this is so. Mr. Cowperwood is a very able man, as I understand +it, but if all these influential men are opposed to him they can +make him a great deal of trouble. The public is very easily +aroused." + +"You do a very able man a great injustice, Mr. Haeckelheimer," +Addison retorted. "Almost any one who starts out to do things +successfully and intelligently is sure to stir up a great deal of +feeling. The particular men you mention seem to feel that they +have a sort of proprietor's interest in Chicago. They really think +they own it. As a matter of fact, the city made them; they didn't +make the city." + +Mr. Haeckelheimer lifted his eyebrows. He laid two fine white +hands, plump and stubby, over the lower buttons of his protuberant +waistcoat. "Public favor is a great factor in all these enterprises," +he almost sighed. "As you know, part of a man's resources lies +in his ability to avoid stirring up opposition. It may be that +Mr. Cowperwood is strong enough to overcome all that. I don't +know. I've never met him. I'm just telling you what I hear." + +This offish attitude on the part of Mr. Haeckelheimer was indicative +of a new trend. The man was enormously wealthy. The firm of +Haeckelheimer, Gotloeb & Co. represented a controlling interest +in some of the principal railways and banks in America. Their +favor was not to be held in light esteem. + +It was plain that these rumors against Cowperwood in New York, +unless offset promptly by favorable events in Chicago, might mean +--in the large banking quarters, anyhow--the refusal of all +subsequent Cowperwood issues. It might even close the doors of +minor banks and make private investors nervous. + +Addison's report of all this annoyed Cowperwood no little. It +made him angry. He saw in it the work of Schryhart, Hand, and +others who were trying their best to discredit him. "Let them +talk," he declared, crossly. "I have the street-railways. They're +not going to rout me out of here. I can sell stocks and bonds to +the public direct if need be! There are plenty of private people +who are glad to invest in these properties." + +At this psychological moment enter, as by the hand of Fate, the +planet Mars and the University. This latter, from having been for +years a humble Baptist college of the cheapest character, had +suddenly, through the beneficence of a great Standard Oil +multimillionaire, flared upward into a great university, and was +causing a stir throughout the length and breadth of the educational +world. + +It was already a most noteworthy spectacle, one of the sights of +the city. Millions were being poured into it; new and beautiful +buildings were almost monthly erected. A brilliant, dynamic man +had been called from the East as president. There were still many +things needed--dormitories, laboratories of one kind and another, +a great library; and, last but not least, a giant telescope--one +that would sweep the heavens with a hitherto unparalleled receptive +eye, and wring from it secrets not previously decipherable by the +eye and the mind of man. + +Cowperwood had always been interested in the heavens and in the +giant mathematical and physical methods of interpreting them. It +so happened that the war-like planet, with its sinister aspect, +was just at this time to be seen hanging in the west, a fiery red; +and the easily aroused public mind was being stirred to its shallow +depth by reflections and speculations regarding the famous canals +of the luminary. The mere thought of the possibility of a larger +telescope than any now in existence, which might throw additional +light on this evasive mystery, was exciting not only Chicago, but +the whole world. Late one afternoon Cowperwood, looking over some +open fields which faced his new power-house in West Madison Street, +observed the planet hanging low and lucent in the evening sky, a +warm, radiant bit of orange in a sea of silver. He paused and +surveyed it. Was it true that there were canals on it, and people? +Life was surely strange. + +One day not long after this Alexander Rambaud called him up on the +'phone and remarked, jocosely: + +"I say, Cowperwood, I've played a rather shabby trick on you just +now. Doctor Hooper, of the University, was in here a few minutes +ago asking me to be one of ten to guarantee the cost of a telescope +lens that he thinks he needs to run that one-horse school of his +out there. I told him I thought you might possibly be interested. +His idea is to find some one who will guarantee forty thousand +dollars, or eight or ten men who will guarantee four or five +thousand each. I thought of you, because I've heard you discuss +astronomy from time to time." + +"Let him come," replied Cowperwood, who was never willing to be +behind others in generosity, particularly where his efforts were +likely to be appreciated in significant quarters. + +Shortly afterward appeared the doctor himself--short, rotund, +rubicund, displaying behind a pair of clear, thick, gold-rimmed +glasses, round, dancing, incisive eyes. Imaginative grip, buoyant, +self-delusive self-respect were written all over him. The two men +eyed each other--one with that broad-gage examination which sees +even universities as futile in the endless shift of things; the +other with that faith in the balance for right which makes even +great personal forces, such as financial magnates, serve an +idealistic end. + +"It's not a very long story I have to tell you, Mr. Cowperwood," +said the doctor. "Our astronomical work is handicapped just now +by the simple fact that we have no lens at all, no telescope worthy +of the name. I should like to see the University do original work +in this field, and do it in a great way. The only way to do it, +in my judgment, is to do it better than any one else can. Don't +you agree with me?" He showed a row of shining white teeth. + +Cowperwood smiled urbanely. + +"Will a forty-thousand-dollar lens be a better lens than any other +lens?" he inquired. + +"Made by Appleman Brothers, of Dorchester, it will," replied the +college president. "The whole story is here, Mr. Cowperwood. +These men are practical lens-makers. A great lens, in the first +place, is a matter of finding a suitable crystal. Large and +flawless crystals are not common, as you may possibly know. Such +a crystal has recently been found, and is now owned by Mr. Appleman. +It takes about four or five years to grind and polish it. Most +of the polishing, as you may or may not know, is done by the +hand--smoothing it with the thumb and forefinger. The time, +judgment, and skill of an optical expert is required. To-day, +unfortunately, that is not cheap. The laborer is worthy of his +hire, however, I suppose"--he waved a soft, full, white hand--"and +forty thousand is little enough. It would be a great honor if the +University could have the largest, most serviceable, and most +perfect lens in the world. It would reflect great credit, I take +it, on the men who would make this possible." + +Cowperwood liked the man's artistically educational air; obviously +here was a personage of ability, brains, emotion, and scientific +enthusiasm. It was splendid to him to see any strong man in +earnest, for himself or others. + +"And forty thousand will do this?" he asked. + +"Yes, sir. Forty thousand will guarantee us the lens, anyhow." + +"And how about land, buildings, a telescope frame? Have you all +those things prepared for it?" + +"Not as yet, but, since it takes four years at least to grind the +lens, there will be time enough, when the lens is nearing completion, +to look after the accessories. We have picked our site, however +--Lake Geneva--and we would not refuse either land or accessories +if we knew where to get them." + +Again the even, shining teeth, the keen eyes boring through the +glasses. + +Cowperwood saw a great opportunity. He asked what would be the +cost of the entire project. Dr. Hooper presumed that three hundred +thousand would do it all handsomely--lens, telescope, land, +machinery, building--a great monument. + +"And how much have you guaranteed on the cost of your lens?" +"Sixteen thousand dollars, so far." + +"To be paid when?" + +"In instalments--ten thousand a year for four years. Just enough +to keep the lens-maker busy for the present." + +Cowperwood reflected. Ten thousand a year for four years would +be a mere salary item, and at the end of that time he felt sure +that he could supply the remainder of the money quite easily. He +would be so much richer; his plans would be so much more mature. +On such a repute (the ability to give a three-hundred-thousand-dollar +telescope out of hand to be known as the Cowperwood telescope) he +could undoubtedly raise money in London, New York, and elsewhere +for his Chicago enterprise. The whole world would know him in a +day. He paused, his enigmatic eyes revealing nothing of the +splendid vision that danced before them. At last! At last! + +"How would it do, Mr. Hooper," he said, sweetly, "if, instead of +ten men giving you four thousand each, as you plan, one man were +to give you forty thousand in annual instalments of ten thousand +each? Could that be arranged as well?" + +"My dear Mr. Cowperwood," exclaimed the doctor, glowing, his eyes +alight, "do I understand that you personally might wish to give +the money for this lens?" + +"I might, yes. But I should have to exact one pledge, Mr. Hooper, +if I did any such thing." + +"And what would that be?" + +"The privilege of giving the land and the building--the whole +telescope, in fact. I presume no word of this will be given out +unless the matter is favorably acted upon?" he added, cautiously +and diplomatically. + +The new president of the university arose and eyed him with a +peculiarly approbative and grateful gaze. He was a busy, overworked +man. His task was large. Any burden taken from his shoulders in +this fashion was a great relief. + +"My answer to that, Mr. Cowperwood, if I had the authority, would +be to agree now in the name of the University, and thank you. For +form's sake, I must submit the matter to the trustees of the +University, but I have no doubt as to the outcome. I anticipate +nothing but grateful approbation. Let me thank you again." + +They shook hands warmly, and the solid collegian bustled forth. +Cowperwood sank quietly in his chair. He pressed his fingers +together, and for a moment or two permitted himself to dream. +Then he called a stenographer and began a bit of dictation. He +did not care to think even to himself how universally advantageous +all this might yet prove to be. + +The result was that in the course of a few weeks the proffer was +formally accepted by the trustees of the University, and a report +of the matter, with Cowperwood's formal consent, was given out for +publication. The fortuitous combination of circumstances already +described gave the matter a unique news value. Giant reflectors +and refractors had been given and were in use in other parts of +the world, but none so large or so important as this. The gift +was sufficient to set Cowperwood forth in the light of a public +benefactor and patron of science. Not only in Chicago, but in +London, Paris, and New York, wherever, indeed, in the great capitals +scientific and intellectual men were gathered, this significant +gift of an apparently fabulously rich American became the subject +of excited discussion. Banking men, among others, took sharp note +of the donor, and when Cowperwood's emissaries came around later +with a suggestion that the fifty-year franchises about to be voted +him for elevated roads should be made a basis of bond and mortgage +loans, they were courteously received. A man who could give +three-hundred-thousand-dollar telescopes in the hour of his greatest +difficulties must be in a rather satisfactory financial condition. +He must have great wealth in reserve. After some preliminaries, +during which Cowperwood paid a flying visit to Threadneedle Street +in London, and to Wall Street in New York, an arrangement was made +with an English-American banking company by which the majority of +the bonds for his proposed roads were taken over by them for sale +in Europe and elsewhere, and he was given ample means wherewith +to proceed. Instantly the stocks of his surface lines bounded in +price, and those who had been scheming to bring about Cowperwood's +downfall gnashed impotent teeth. Even Haeckelheimer & Co. were +interested. + +Anson Merrill, who had only a few weeks before given a large field +for athletic purposes to the University, pulled a wry face over +this sudden eclipse of his glory. Hosmer Hand, who had given a +chemical laboratory, and Schryhart, who had presented a dormitory, +were depressed to think that a benefaction less costly than theirs +should create, because of the distinction of the idea, so much +more notable comment. It was merely another example of the brilliant +fortune which seemed to pursue the man, the star that set all their +plans at defiance. + + + + +Chapter XLIV + + + +A Franchise Obtained + +The money requisite for the construction of elevated roads having +been thus pyrotechnically obtained, the acquisition of franchises +remained no easy matter. It involved, among other problems, the +taming of Chaffee Thayer Sluss, who, quite unconscious of the +evidence stored up against him, had begun to fulminate the moment +it was suggested in various secret political quarters that a new +ordinance was about to be introduced, and that Cowperwood was to +be the beneficiary. "Don't you let them do that, Mr. Sluss," +observed Mr. Hand, who for purposes of conference had courteously +but firmly bidden his hireling, the mayor, to lunch. "Don't you +let them pass that if you can help it." (As chairman or president +of the city council Mr. Sluss held considerable manipulative power +over the machinery of procedure.) "Raise such a row that they won't +try to pass it over your head. Your political future really depends +on it--your standing with the people of Chicago. The newspapers +and the respectable financial and social elements will fully support +you in this. Otherwise they will wholly desert you. Things have +come to a handsome pass when men sworn and elected to perform given +services turn on their backers and betray them in this way!" + +Mr. Hand was very wroth. + +Mr. Sluss, immaculate in black broadcloth and white linen, was +very sure that he would fulfil to the letter all of Mr. Hand's +suggestions. The proposed ordinance should be denounced by him; +its legislative progress heartily opposed in council. + +"They shall get no quarter from me!" he declared, emphatically. +"I know what the scheme is. They know that I know it." + +He looked at Mr. Hand quite as one advocate of righteousness should +look at another, and the rich promoter went away satisfied that +the reins of government were in safe hands. Immediately afterward +Mr. Sluss gave out an interview in which he served warning on all +aldermen and councilmen that no such ordinance as the one in +question would ever be signed by him as mayor. + +At half past ten on the same morning on which the interview appeared +--the hour at which Mr. Sluss usually reached his office--his +private telephone bell rang, and an assistant inquired if he would +be willing to speak with Mr. Frank A. Cowperwood. Mr. Sluss, +somehow anticipating fresh laurels of victory, gratified by the +front-page display given his announcement in the morning papers, +and swelling internally with civic pride, announced, solemnly: +"Yes; connect me." + +"Mr. Sluss," began Cowperwood, at the other end, "this is Frank +A. Cowperwood." + +"Yes. What can I do for you, Mr. Cowperwood?" + +"I see by the morning papers that you state that you will have +nothing to do with any proposed ordinance which looks to giving +me a franchise for any elevated road on the North or West Side?" + +"That is quite true," replied Mr. Sluss, loftily. "I will not." + +"Don't you think it is rather premature, Mr. Sluss, to denounce +something which has only a rumored existence?" (Cowperwood, smiling +sweetly to himself, was quite like a cat playing with an unsuspicious +mouse.) "I should like very much to talk this whole matter over +with you personally before you take an irrevocable attitude. It +is just possible that after you have heard my side you may not be +so completely opposed to me. From time to time I have sent to you +several of my personal friends, but apparently you do not care to +receive them." + +"Quite true," replied Mr. Sluss, loftily; "but you must remember +that I am a very busy man, Mr. Cowperwood, and, besides, I do not +see how I can serve any of your purposes. You are working for a +set of conditions to which I am morally and temperamentally opposed. +I am working for another. I do not see that we have any common +ground on which to meet. In fact, I do not see how I can be of +any service to you whatsoever." + +"Just a moment, please, Mr. Mayor," replied Cowperwood, still very +sweetly, and fearing that Sluss might choose to hang up the receiver, +so superior was his tone. "There may be some common ground of +which you do not know. Wouldn't you like to come to lunch at my +residence or receive me at yours? Or let me come to your office +and talk this matter over. I believe you will find it the part +of wisdom as well as of courtesy to do this." + +"I cannot possibly lunch with you to-day," replied Sluss, "and I +cannot see you, either. There are a number of things pressing for +my attention. I must say also that I cannot hold any back-room +conferences with you or your emissaries. If you come you must +submit to the presence of others." + +"Very well, Mr. Sluss," replied Cowperwood, cheerfully. "I will +not come to your office. But unless you come to mine before five +o'clock this afternoon you will face by noon to-morrow a suit for +breach of promise, and your letters to Mrs. Brandon will be given +to the public. I wish to remind you that an election is coming +on, and that Chicago favors a mayor who is privately moral as well +as publicly so. Good morning." + +Mr. Cowperwood hung up his telephone receiver with a click, and +Mr. Sluss sensibly and visibly stiffened and paled. Mrs. Brandon! +The charming, lovable, discreet Mrs. Brandon who had so ungenerously +left him! Why should she be thinking of suing him for breach of +promise, and how did his letter to her come to be in Cowperwood's +hands? Good heavens--those mushy letters! His wife! His children! +His church and the owlish pastor thereof! Chicago! And its +conventional, moral, religious atmosphere! Come to think of it, +Mrs. Brandon had scarcely if ever written him a note of any kind. +He did not even know her history. + +At the thought of Mrs. Sluss--her hard, cold, blue eyes--Mr. Sluss +arose, tall and distrait, and ran his hand through his hair. He +walked to the window, snapping his thumb and middle finger and +looking eagerly at the floor. He thought of the telephone switchboard +just outside his private office, and wondered whether his secretary, +a handsome young Presbyterian girl, had been listening, as usual. +Oh, this sad, sad world! If the North Side ever learned of this +--Hand, the newspapers, young MacDonald--would they protect him? +They would not. Would they run him for mayor again? Never! Could +the public be induced to vote for him with all the churches +fulminating against private immorality, hypocrites, and whited +sepulchers? Oh, Lord! Oh, Lord! And he was so very, very much +respected and looked up to--that was the worst of it all. This +terrible demon Cowperwood had descended on him, and he had thought +himself so secure. He had not even been civil to Cowperwood. +What if the latter chose to avenge the discourtesy? + +Mr. Sluss went back to his chair, but he could not sit in it. He +went for his coat, took it down, hung it up again, took it down, +announced over the 'phone that he could not see any one for several +hours, and went out by a private door. Wearily he walked along +North Clark Street, looking at the hurly-burly of traffic, looking +at the dirty, crowded river, looking at the sky and smoke and gray +buildings, and wondering what he should do. The world was so hard +at times; it was so cruel. His wife, his family, his political +career. He could not conscientiously sign any ordinances for Mr. +Cowperwood--that would be immoral, dishonest, a scandal to the +city. Mr. Cowperwood was a notorious traitor to the public welfare. +At the same time he could not very well refuse, for here was Mrs. +Brandon, the charming and unscrupulous creature, playing into the +hands of Cowperwood. If he could only meet her, beg of her, plead; +but where was she? He had not seen her for months and months. +Could he go to Hand and confess all? But Hand was a hard, cold, +moral man also. Oh, Lord! Oh, Lord! He wondered and thought, and +sighed and pondered--all without avail. + +Pity the poor earthling caught in the toils of the moral law. In +another country, perhaps, in another day, another age, such a +situation would have been capable of a solution, one not utterly +destructive to Mr. Sluss, and not entirely favorable to a man like +Cowperwood. But here in the United States, here in Chicago, the +ethical verities would all, as he knew, be lined up against him. +What Lake View would think, what his pastor would think, what Hand +and all his moral associates would think--ah, these were the +terrible, the incontrovertible consequences of his lapse from virtue. + +At four o'clock, after Mr. Sluss had wandered for hours in the +snow and cold, belaboring himself for a fool and a knave, and while +Cowperwood was sitting at his desk signing papers, contemplating +a glowing fire, and wondering whether the mayor would deem it +advisable to put in an appearance, his office door opened and one +of his trim stenographers entered announcing Mr. Chaffee Thayer +Sluss. Enter Mayor Sluss, sad, heavy, subdued, shrunken, a very +different gentleman from the one who had talked so cavalierly over +the wires some five and a half hours before. Gray weather, severe +cold, and much contemplation of seemingly irreconcilable facts had +reduced his spirits greatly. He was a little pale and a little +restless. Mental distress has a reducing, congealing effect, and +Mayor Sluss seemed somewhat less than his usual self in height, +weight, and thickness. Cowperwood had seen him more than once on +various political platforms, but he had never met him. When the +troubled mayor entered he arose courteously and waved him to a +chair. + +"Sit down, Mr. Sluss," he said, genially. "It's a disagreeable +day out, isn't it? I suppose you have come in regard to the matter +we were discussing this morning?" + +Nor was this cordiality wholly assumed. One of the primal instincts +of Cowperwood's nature--for all his chicane and subtlety--was to +take no rough advantage of a beaten enemy. In the hour of victory +he was always courteous, bland, gentle, and even sympathetic; he +was so to-day, and quite honestly, too. + +Mayor Sluss put down the high sugar-loaf hat he wore and said, +grandiosely, as was his manner even in the direst extremity: "Well, +you see, I am here, Mr. Cowperwood. What is it you wish me to do, +exactly?" + +"Nothing unreasonable, I assure you, Mr. Sluss," replied Cowperwood. +"Your manner to me this morning was a little brusque, and, as I +have always wanted to have a sensible private talk with you, I +took this way of getting it. I should like you to dismiss from +your mind at once the thought that I am going to take an unfair +advantage of you in any way. I have no present intention of +publishing your correspondence with Mrs. Brandon." (As he said +this he took from his drawer a bundle of letters which Mayor Sluss +recognized at once as the enthusiastic missives which he had +sometime before penned to the fair Claudia. Mr. Sluss groaned as +he beheld this incriminating evidence.) "I am not trying," continued +Cowperwood, "to wreck your career, nor to make you do anything which +you do not feel that you can conscientiously undertake. The letters +that I have here, let me say, have come to me quite by accident. +I did not seek them. But, since I do have them, I thought I might +as well mention them as a basis for a possible talk and compromise +between us." + +Cowperwood did not smile. He merely looked thoughtfully at Sluss; +then, by way of testifying to the truthfulness of what he had been +saying, thumped the letters up and down, just to show that they +were real. + +"Yes," said Mr. Sluss, heavily, "I see." + +He studied the bundle--a small, solid affair--while Cowperwood +looked discreetly elsewhere. He contemplated his own shoes, the +floor. He rubbed his hands and then his knees. + +Cowperwood saw how completely he had collapsed. It was ridiculous, +pitiable. + +"Come, Mr. Sluss," said Cowperwood, amiably, "cheer up. Things +are not nearly as desperate as you think. I give you my word right +now that nothing which you yourself, on mature thought, could say +was unfair will be done. You are the mayor of Chicago. I am a +citizen. I merely wish fair play from you. I merely ask you to +give me your word of honor that from now on you will take no part +in this fight which is one of pure spite against me. If you cannot +conscientiously aid me in what I consider to be a perfectly +legitimate demand for additional franchises, you will, at least, +not go out of your way to publicly attack me. I will put these +letters in my safe, and there they will stay until the next campaign +is over, when I will take them out and destroy them. I have no +personal feeling against you--none in the world. I do not ask you +to sign any ordinance which the council may pass giving me +elevated-road rights. What I do wish you to do at this time is +to refrain from stirring up public sentiment against me, especially +if the council should see fit to pass an ordinance over your veto. +Is that satisfactory?" + +"But my friends? The public? The Republican party? Don't you see +it is expected of me that I should wage some form of campaign +against you?" queried Sluss, nervously. + +"No, I don't," replied Cowperwood, succinctly, "and, anyhow, there +are ways and ways of waging a public campaign. Go through the +motions, if you wish, but don't put too much heart in it. And, +anyhow, see some one of my lawyers from time to time when they +call on you. Judge Dickensheets is an able and fair man. So is +General Van Sickle. Why not confer with them occasionally?--not +publicly, of course, but in some less conspicuous way. You will +find both of them most helpful." + +Cowperwood smiled encouragingly, quite beneficently, and Chaffee +Thayer Sluss, his political hopes gone glimmering, sat and mused +for a few moments in a sad and helpless quandary. + +"Very well," he said, at last, rubbing his hands feverishly. "It +is what I might have expected. I should have known. There is no +other way, but--" Hardly able to repress the hot tears now burning +beneath his eyelids, the Hon. Mr. Sluss picked up his hat and left +the room. Needless to add that his preachings against Cowperwood +were permanently silenced. + + + + +Chapter XLV + + + +Changing Horizons + +The effect of all this was to arouse in Cowperwood the keenest +feelings of superiority he had ever yet enjoyed. Hitherto he had +fancied that his enemies might worst him, but at last his path +seemed clear. He was now worth, all in all, the round sum of +twenty million dollars. His art-collection had become the most +important in the West--perhaps in the nation, public collections +excluded. He began to envision himself as a national figure, +possibly even an international one. And yet he was coming to feel +that, no matter how complete his financial victory might ultimately +be, the chances were that he and Aileen would never be socially +accepted here in Chicago. He had done too many boisterous things +--alienated too many people. He was as determined as ever to +retain a firm grip on the Chicago street-railway situation. But +he was disturbed for a second time in his life by the thought +that, owing to the complexities of his own temperament, he had +married unhappily and would find the situation difficult of +adjustment. Aileen, whatever might be said of her deficiencies, +was by no means as tractable or acquiescent as his first wife. +And, besides, he felt that he owed her a better turn. By no means +did he actually dislike her as yet; though she was no longer +soothing, stimulating, or suggestive to him as she had formerly +been. Her woes, because of him, were too many; her attitude toward +him too censorious. He was perfectly willing to sympathize with +her, to regret his own change of feeling, but what would you? He +could not control his own temperament any more than Aileen could +control hers. + +The worst of this situation was that it was now becoming complicated +on Cowperwood's part with the most disturbing thoughts concerning +Berenice Fleming. Ever since the days when he had first met her +mother he had been coming more and more to feel for the young girl +a soul-stirring passion--and that without a single look exchanged +or a single word spoken. There is a static something which is +beauty, and this may be clothed in the habiliments of a ragged +philosopher or in the silks and satins of pampered coquetry. It +was a suggestion of this beauty which is above sex and above age +and above wealth that shone in the blowing hair and night-blue +eyes of Berenice Fleming. His visit to the Carter family at Pocono +had been a disappointment to him, because of the apparent hopelessness +of arousing Berenice's interest, and since that time, and during +their casual encounters, she had remained politely indifferent. +Nevertheless, he remained true to his persistence in the pursuit +of any game he had fixed upon. + +Mrs. Carter, whose relations with Cowperwood had in the past been +not wholly platonic, nevertheless attributed much of his interest +in her to her children and their vital chance. Berenice and Rolfe +themselves knew nothing concerning the nature of their mother's +arrangements with Cowperwood. True to his promise of protectorship +and assistance, he had established her in a New York apartment +adjacent to her daughter's school, and where he fancied that he +himself might spend many happy hours were Berenice but near. +Proximity to Berenice! The desire to arouse her interest and command +her favor! Cowperwood would scarcely have cared to admit to himself +how great a part this played in a thought which had recently been +creeping into his mind. It was that of erecting a splendid house +in New York. + +By degrees this idea of building a New York house had grown upon +him. His Chicago mansion was a costly sepulcher in which Aileen +sat brooding over the woes which had befallen her. Moreover, aside +from the social defeat which it represented, it was becoming merely +as a structure, but poorly typical of the splendor and ability of +his imaginations. This second dwelling, if he ever achieved it, +should be resplendent, a monument to himself. In his speculative +wanderings abroad he had seen many such great palaces, designed +with the utmost care, which had housed the taste and culture of +generations of men. His art-collection, in which he took an +immense pride, had been growing, until it was the basis if not the +completed substance for a very splendid memorial. Already in it +were gathered paintings of all the important schools; to say nothing +of collections of jade, illumined missals, porcelains, rugs, +draperies, mirror frames, and a beginning at rare originals of +sculpture. The beauty of these strange things, the patient laborings +of inspired souls of various times and places, moved him, on +occasion, to a gentle awe. Of all individuals he respected, indeed +revered, the sincere artist. Existence was a mystery, but these +souls who set themselves to quiet tasks of beauty had caught +something of which he was dimly conscious. Life had touched them +with a vision, their hearts and souls were attuned to sweet harmonies +of which the common world knew nothing. Sometimes, when he was +weary after a strenuous day, he would enter--late in the night +--his now silent gallery, and turning on the lights so that the +whole sweet room stood revealed, he would seat himself before some +treasure, reflecting on the nature, the mood, the time, and the +man that had produced it. Sometimes it would be one of Rembrandt's +melancholy heads--the sad "Portrait of a Rabbi"--or the sweet +introspection of a Rousseau stream. A solemn Dutch housewife, +rendered with the bold fidelity and resonant enameled surfaces of +a Hals or the cold elegance of an Ingres, commanded his utmost +enthusiasm. So he would sit and wonder at the vision and skill +of the original dreamer, exclaiming at times: "A marvel! A marvel!" + +At the same time, so far as Aileen was concerned things were +obviously shaping up for additional changes. She was in that +peculiar state which has befallen many a woman--trying to substitute +a lesser ideal for a greater, and finding that the effort is useless +or nearly so. In regard to her affair with Lynde, aside from the +temporary relief and diversion it had afforded her, she was beginning +to feel that she had made a serious mistake. Lynde was delightful, +after his fashion. He could amuse her with a different type of +experience from any that Cowperwood had to relate. Once they were +intimate he had, with an easy, genial air, confessed to all sorts +of liaisons in Europe and America. He was utterly pagan--a faun +--and at the same time he was truly of the smart world. His open +contempt of all but one or two of the people in Chicago whom Aileen +had secretly admired and wished to associate with, and his easy +references to figures of importance in the East and in Paris and +London, raised him amazingly in her estimation; it made her feel, +sad to relate, that she had by no means lowered herself in succumbing +so readily to his forceful charms. + +Nevertheless, because he was what he was--genial, complimentary, +affectionate, but a playboy, merely, and a soldier of fortune, +with no desire to make over her life for her on any new basis--she +was now grieving over the futility of this romance which had got +her nowhere, and which, in all probability, had alienated Cowperwood +for good. He was still outwardly genial and friendly, but their +relationship was now colored by a sense of mistake and uncertainty +which existed on both sides, but which, in Aileen's case, amounted +to a subtle species of soul-torture. Hitherto she had been the +aggrieved one, the one whose loyalty had never been in question, +and whose persistent affection and faith had been greatly sinned +against. Now all this was changed. The manner in which he had +sinned against her was plain enough, but the way in which, out of +pique, she had forsaken him was in the other balance. Say what +one will, the loyalty of woman, whether a condition in nature or +an evolved accident of sociology, persists as a dominating thought +in at least a section of the race; and women themselves, be it +said, are the ones who most loudly and openly subscribe to it. +Cowperwood himself was fully aware that Aileen had deserted him, +not because she loved him less or Lynde more, but because she was +hurt--and deeply so. Aileen knew that he knew this. From one +point of view it enraged her and made her defiant; from another +it grieved her to think she had uselessly sinned against his faith +in her. Now he had ample excuse to do anything he chose. Her +best claim on him--her wounds--she had thrown away as one throws +away a weapon. Her pride would not let her talk to him about this, +and at the same time she could not endure the easy, tolerant manner +with which he took it. His smiles, his forgiveness, his sometimes +pleasant jesting were all a horrible offense. + +To complete her mental quandary, she was already beginning to +quarrel with Lynde over this matter of her unbreakable regard for +Cowperwood. With the sufficiency of a man of the world Lynde +intended that she should succumb to him completely and forget her +wonderful husband. When with him she was apparently charmed and +interested, yielding herself freely, but this was more out of pique +at Cowperwood's neglect than from any genuine passion for Lynde. +In spite of her pretensions of anger, her sneers, and criticisms +whenever Cowperwood's name came up, she was, nevertheless, hopelessly +fond of him and identified with him spiritually, and it was not +long before Lynde began to suspect this. Such a discovery is a +sad one for any master of women to make. It jolted his pride +severely. + +"You care for him still, don't you?" he asked, with a wry smile, +upon one occasion. They were sitting at dinner in a private room +at Kinsley's, and Aileen, whose color was high, and who was +becomingly garbed in metallic-green silk, was looking especially +handsome. Lynde had been proposing that she should make special +arrangements to depart with him for a three-months' stay in Europe, +but she would have nothing to do with the project. She did not +dare. Such a move would make Cowperwood feel that she was alienating +herself forever; it would give him an excellent excuse to leave +her. + +"Oh, it isn't that," she had declared, in reply to Lynde's query. +"I just don't want to go. I can't. I'm not prepared. It's +nothing but a notion of yours, anyhow. You're tired of Chicago +because it's getting near spring. You go and I'll be here when +you come back, or I may decide to come over later." She smiled. + +Lynde pulled a dark face. + +"Hell!" he said. "I know how it is with you. You still stick to +him, even when he treats you like a dog. You pretend not to love +him when as a matter of fact you're mad about him. I've seen it +all along. You don't really care anything about me. You can't. +You're too crazy about him." + +"Oh, shut up!" replied Aileen, irritated greatly for the moment +by this onslaught. "You talk like a fool. I'm not anything of +the sort. I admire him. How could any one help it?" (At this +time, of course, Cowperwood's name was filling the city.) "He's a +very wonderful man. He was never brutal to me. He's a full-sized +man--I'll say that for him." + +By now Aileen had become sufficiently familiar with Lynde to +criticize him in her own mind, and even outwardly by innuendo, for +being a loafer and idler who had never created in any way the money +he was so freely spending. She had little power to psychologize +concerning social conditions, but the stalwart constructive +persistence of Cowperwood along commercial lines coupled with the +current American contempt of leisure reflected somewhat unfavorably +upon Lynde, she thought. + +Lynde's face clouded still more at this outburst. "You go to the +devil," he retorted. "I don't get you at all. Sometimes you talk +as though you were fond of me. At other times you're all wrapped +up in him. Now you either care for me or you don't. Which is it? +If you're so crazy about him that you can't leave home for a month +or so you certainly can't care much about me." + +Aileen, however, because of her long experience with Cowperwood, +was more than a match for Lynde. At the same time she was afraid +to let go of him for fear that she should have no one to care for +her. She liked him. He was a happy resource in her misery, at +least for the moment. Yet the knowledge that Cowperwood looked +upon this affair as a heavy blemish on her pristine solidarity +cooled her. At the thought of him and of her whole tarnished and +troubled career she was very unhappy. + +"Hell!" Lynde had repeated, irritably, "stay if you want to. I'll +not be trying to over-persuade you--depend on that." + +They quarreled still further over this matter, and, though they +eventually made up, both sensed the drift toward an ultimately +unsatisfactory conclusion. + +It was one morning not long after this that Cowperwood, feeling +in a genial mood over his affairs, came into Aileen's room, as he +still did on occasions, to finish dressing and pass the time of +day. + +"Well," he observed, gaily, as he stood before the mirror adjusting +his collar and tie, "how are you and Lynde getting along these +days--nicely?" + +"Oh, you go to the devil!" replied Aileen, flaring up and struggling +with her divided feelings, which pained her constantly. "If it +hadn't been for you there wouldn't be any chance for your smarty +'how-am-I-getting-alongs.' I am getting along all right--fine +--regardless of anything you may think. He's as good a man as +you are any day, and better. I like him. At least he's fond of +me, and that's more than you are. Why should you care what I do? +You don't, so why talk about it? I want you to let me alone." + +"Aileen, Aileen, how you carry on! Don't flare up so. I meant +nothing by it. I'm sorry as much for myself as for you. I've +told you I'm not jealous. You think I'm critical. I'm not anything +of the kind. I know how you feel. That's all very good." + +"Oh yes, yes," she replied. "Well, you can keep your feelings to +yourself. Go to the devil! Go to the devil, I tell you!" Her eyes +blazed. + +He stood now, fully dressed, in the center of the rug before her, +and Aileen looked at him, keen, valiant, handsome--her old Frank. +Once again she regretted her nominal faithlessness, and raged at +him in her heart for his indifference. "You dog," she was about +to add, "you have no heart!" but she changed her mind. Her throat +tightened and her eyes filled. She wanted to run to him and say: +"Oh, Frank, don't you understand how it all is, how it all came +about? Won't you love me again--can't you?" But she restrained +herself. It seemed to her that he might understand--that he would, +in fact--but that he would never again be faithful, anyhow. And +she would so gladly have discarded Lynde and any and all men if +he would only have said the word, would only have really and +sincerely wished her to do so. + +It was one day not long after their morning quarrel in her bedroom +that Cowperwood broached the matter of living in New York to Aileen, +pointing out that thereby his art-collection, which was growing +constantly, might be more suitably housed, and that it would give +her a second opportunity to enter social life. + +"So that you can get rid of me out here," commented Aileen, little +knowing of Berenice Fleming. + +"Not at all," replied Cowperwood, sweetly. "You see how things +are. There's no chance of our getting into Chicago society. +There's too much financial opposition against me here. If we had +a big house in New York, such as I would build, it would be an +introduction in itself. After all, these Chicagoans aren't even +a snapper on the real society whip. It's the Easterners who set +the pace, and the New-Yorkers most of all. If you want to say the +word, I can sell this place and we can live down there, part of +the time, anyhow. I could spend as much of my time with you there +as I have been doing here--perhaps more." + +Because of her soul of vanity Aileen's mind ran forward in spite +of herself to the wider opportunities which his words suggested. +This house had become a nightmare to her--a place of neglect and +bad memories. Here she had fought with Rita Sohlberg; here she +had seen society come for a very little while only to disappear; +here she had waited this long time for the renewal of Cowperwood's +love, which was now obviously never to be restored in its original +glamour. As he spoke she looked at him quizzically, almost sadly +in her great doubt. At the same time she could not help reflecting +that in New York where money counted for so much, and with +Cowperwood's great and growing wealth and prestige behind her, she +might hope to find herself socially at last. "Nothing venture, +nothing have" had always been her motto, nailed to her mast, though +her equipment for the life she now craved had never been more than +the veriest make-believe--painted wood and tinsel. Vain, radiant, +hopeful Aileen! Yet how was she to know? + +"Very well," she observed, finally. "Do as you like. I can live +down there as well as I can here, I presume--alone." + +Cowperwood knew the nature of her longings. He knew what was +running in her mind, and how futile were her dreams. Life had +taught him how fortuitous must be the circumstances which could +enable a woman of Aileen's handicaps and defects to enter that +cold upper world. Yet for all the courage of him, for the very +life of him, he could not tell her. He could not forget that once, +behind the grim bars in the penitentiary for the Eastern District +of Pennsylvania, he had cried on her shoulder. He could not be +an ingrate and wound her with his inmost thoughts any more than +he could deceive himself. A New York mansion and the dreams of +social supremacy which she might there entertain would soothe her +ruffled vanity and assuage her disappointed heart; and at the same +time he would be nearer Berenice Fleming. Say what one will of +these ferret windings of the human mind, they are, nevertheless, +true and characteristic of the average human being, and Cowperwood +was no exception. He saw it all, he calculated on it--he calculated +on the simple humanity of Aileen. + + + + +Chapter XLVI + + + +Depths and Heights + +The complications which had followed his various sentimental affairs +left Cowperwood in a quandary at times as to whether there could +be any peace or satisfaction outside of monogamy, after all. +Although Mrs. Hand had gone to Europe at the crisis of her affairs, +she had returned to seek him out. Cecily Haguenin found many +opportunities of writing him letters and assuring him of her undying +affection. Florence Cochrane persisted in seeing or attempting +to see him even after his interest in her began to wane. For +another thing Aileen, owing to the complication and general +degeneracy of her affairs, had recently begun to drink. Owing to +the failure of her affair with Lynde--for in spite of her yielding +she had never had any real heart interest in it--and to the cavalier +attitude with which Cowperwood took her disloyalty, she had reached +that state of speculative doldrums where the human animal turns +upon itself in bitter self-analysis; the end with the more sensitive +or the less durable is dissipation or even death. Woe to him who +places his faith in illusion--the only reality--and woe to him who +does not. In one way lies disillusion with its pain, in the other +way regret. + +After Lynde's departure for Europe, whither she had refused to +follow him, Aileen took up with a secondary personage by the name +of Watson Skeet, a sculptor. Unlike most artists, he was the +solitary heir of the president of an immense furniture-manufacturing +company in which he refused to take any interest. He had studied +abroad, but had returned to Chicago with a view to propagating art +in the West. A large, blond, soft-fleshed man, he had a kind of +archaic naturalness and simplicity which appealed to Aileen. They +had met at the Rhees Griers'. Feeling herself neglected after +Lynde's departure, and dreading loneliness above all things, Aileen +became intimate with Skeet, but to no intense mental satisfaction. +That driving standard within--that obsessing ideal which requires +that all things be measured by it--was still dominant. Who has +not experienced the chilling memory of the better thing? How it +creeps over the spirit of one's current dreams! Like the specter +at the banquet it stands, its substanceless eyes viewing with a +sad philosophy the makeshift feast. The what-might-have-been of +her life with Cowperwood walked side by side with her wherever she +went. Once occasionally indulging in cigarettes, she now smoked +almost constantly. Once barely sipping at wines, cocktails, +brandy-and-soda, she now took to the latter, or, rather, to a +new whisky-and-soda combination known as "highball" with a kind +of vehemence which had little to do with a taste for the thing +itself. True, drinking is, after all, a state of mind, and not +an appetite. She had found on a number of occasions when she had +been quarreling with Lynde or was mentally depressed that in +partaking of these drinks a sort of warm, speculative indifference +seized upon her. She was no longer so sad. She might cry, but +it was in a soft, rainy, relieving way. Her sorrows were as +strange, enticing figures in dreams. They moved about and around +her, not as things actually identical with her, but as ills which +she could view at a distance. Sometimes both she and they (for +she saw herself also as in a kind of mirage or inverted vision) +seemed beings of another state, troubled, but not bitterly painful. +The old nepenthe of the bottle had seized upon her. After a few +accidental lapses, in which she found it acted as a solace or +sedative, the highball visioned itself to her as a resource. Why +should she not drink if it relieved her, as it actually did, of +physical and mental pain? There were apparently no bad after-effects. +The whisky involved was diluted to an almost watery state. It +was her custom now when at home alone to go to the butler's pantry +where the liquors were stored and prepare a drink for herself, or +to order a tray with a siphon and bottle placed in her room. +Cowperwood, noticing the persistence of its presence there and the +fact that she drank heavily at table, commented upon it. + +"You're not taking too much of that, are you, Aileen?" he questioned +one evening, watching her drink down a tumbler of whisky and water +as she sat contemplating a pattern of needlework with which the +table was ornamented. + +"Certainly I'm not," she replied, irritably, a little flushed and +thick of tongue. "Why do you ask?" She herself had been wondering +whether in the course of time it might not have a depreciating +effect on her complexion. This was the only thing that still +concerned her--her beauty. + +"Well, I see you have that bottle in your room all the time. I +was wondering if you might not be forgetting how much you are using +it." + +Because she was so sensitive he was trying to be tactful. + +"Well," she answered, crossly, "what if I am? It wouldn't make any +particular difference if I did. I might as well drink as do some +other things that are done." + +It was a kind of satisfaction to her to bait him in this way. His +inquiry, being a proof of continued interest on his part, was of +some value. At least he was not entirely indifferent to her. + +"I wish you wouldn't talk that way, Aileen," he replied. "I have +no objection to your drinking some. I don't suppose it makes any +difference to you now whether I object or not. But you are too +good-looking, too well set up physically, to begin that. You don't +need it, and it's such a short road to hell. Your state isn't so +bad. Good heavens! many another woman has been in your position. +I'm not going to leave you unless you want to leave me. I've +told you that over and over. I'm just sorry people change--we all +do. I suppose I've changed some, but that's no reason for your +letting yourself go to pieces. I wish you wouldn't be desperate +about this business. It may come out better than you think in the +long run." + +He was merely talking to console her. + +"Oh! oh! oh!" Aileen suddenly began to rock and cry in a foolish +drunken way, as though her heart would break, and Cowperwood got +up. He was horrified after a fashion. + +"Oh, don't come near me!" Aileen suddenly exclaimed, sobering in +an equally strange way. "I know why you come. I know how much +you care about me or my looks. Don't you worry whether I drink +or not. I'll drink if I please, or do anything else if I choose. +If it helps me over my difficulties, that's my business, not yours," +and in defiance she prepared another glass and drank it. + +Cowperwood shook his head, looking at her steadily and sorrowfully. +"It's too bad, Aileen," he said. "I don't know what to do about +you exactly. You oughtn't to go on this way. Whisky won't get +you anywhere. It will simply ruin your looks and make you miserable +in the bargain." + +"Oh, to hell with my looks!" she snapped. "A lot of good they've +done me." And, feeling contentious and sad, she got up and left +the table. Cowperwood followed her after a time, only to see her +dabbing at her eyes and nose with powder. A half-filled glass of +whisky and water was on the dressing-table beside her. It gave +him a strange feeling of responsibility and helplessness. + +Mingled with his anxiety as to Aileen were thoughts of the alternate +rise and fall of his hopes in connection with Berenice. She was +such a superior girl, developing so definitely as an individual. +To his satisfaction she had, on a few recent occasions when he had +seen her, unbent sufficiently to talk to him in a friendly and +even intimate way, for she was by no means hoity-toity, but a +thinking, reasoning being of the profoundest intellectual, or, +rather, the highest artistic tendencies. She was so care-free, +living in a high and solitary world, at times apparently enwrapt +in thoughts serene, at other times sharing vividly in the current +interests of the social world of which she was a part, and which +she dignified as much as it dignified her. + +One Sunday morning at Pocono, in late June weather, when he had +come East to rest for a few days, and all was still and airy on +the high ground which the Carter cottage occupied, Berenice came +out on the veranda where Cowperwood was sitting, reading a fiscal +report of one of his companies and meditating on his affairs. By +now they had become somewhat more sympatica than formerly, and +Berenice had an easy, genial way in his presence. She liked him, +rather. With an indescribable smile which wrinkled her nose and +eyes, and played about the corners of her mouth, she said: "Now +I am going to catch a bird." + +"A what?" asked Cowperwood, looking up and pretending he had not +heard, though he had. He was all eyes for any movement of hers. +She was dressed in a flouncy morning gown eminently suitable for +the world in which she was moving. + +"A bird," she replied, with an airy toss of her head. "This is +June-time, and the sparrows are teaching their young to fly." + +Cowperwood, previously engrossed in financial speculations, was +translated, as by the wave of a fairy wand, into another realm +where birds and fledglings and grass and the light winds of heaven +were more important than brick and stone and stocks and bonds. +He got up and followed her flowing steps across the grass to where, +near a clump of alder bushes, she had seen a mother sparrow enticing +a fledgling to take wing. From her room upstairs, she had been +watching this bit of outdoor sociology. It suddenly came to +Cowperwood, with great force, how comparatively unimportant in the +great drift of life were his own affairs when about him was operative +all this splendid will to existence, as sensed by her. He saw her +stretch out her hands downward, and run in an airy, graceful way, +stooping here and there, while before her fluttered a baby sparrow, +until suddenly she dived quickly and then, turning, her face agleam, +cried: "See, I have him! He wants to fight, too! Oh, you little +dear!" + +She was holding "him," as she chose to characterize it, in the +hollow of her hand, the head between her thumb and forefinger, +with the forefinger of her free hand petting it the while she +laughed and kissed it. It was not so much bird-love as the artistry +of life and of herself that was moving her. Hearing the parent +bird chirping distractedly from a nearby limb, she turned and +called: "Don't make such a row! I sha'n't keep him long." + +Cowperwood laughed--trig in the morning sun. "You can scarcely +blame her," he commented. + +"Oh, she knows well enough I wouldn't hurt him," Berenice replied, +spiritedly, as though it were literally true. + +"Does she, indeed?" inquired Cowperwood. "Why do you say that?" + +"Because it's true. Don't you think they know when their children +are really in danger?" + +"But why should they?" persisted Cowperwood, charmed and interested +by the involute character of her logic. She was quite deceptive +to him. He could not be sure what she thought. + +She merely fixed him a moment with her cool, slate-blue eyes. "Do +you think the senses of the world are only five?" she asked, in +the most charming and non-reproachful way. "Indeed, they know +well enough. She knows." She turned and waved a graceful hand in +the direction of the tree, where peace now reigned. The chirping +had ceased. "She knows I am not a cat." + +Again that enticing, mocking smile that wrinkled her nose, her +eye-corners, her mouth. The word "cat" had a sharp, sweet sound +in her mouth. It seemed to be bitten off closely with force and +airy spirit. Cowperwood surveyed her as he would have surveyed +the ablest person he knew. Here was a woman, he saw, who could +and would command the utmost reaches of his soul in every direction. +If he interested her at all, he would need them all. The eyes +of her were at once so elusive, so direct, so friendly, so cool +and keen. "You will have to be interesting, indeed, to interest +me," they seemed to say; and yet they were by no means averse, +apparently, to a hearty camaraderie. That nose-wrinkling smile +said as much. Here was by no means a Stephanie Platow, nor yet a +Rita Sohlberg. He could not assume her as he had Ella Hubby, or +Florence Cochrane, or Cecily Haguenin. Here was an iron individuality +with a soul for romance and art and philosophy and life. He could +not take her as he had those others. And yet Berenice was really +beginning to think more than a little about Cowperwood. He must +be an extraordinary man; her mother said so, and the newspapers +were always mentioning his name and noting his movements. + +A little later, at Southampton, whither she and her mother had +gone, they met again. Together with a young man by the name of +Greanelle, Cowperwood and Berenice had gone into the sea to bathe. +It was a wonderful afternoon. + +To the east and south and west spread the sea, a crinkling floor +of blue, and to their left, as they faced it, was a lovely +outward-curving shore of tawny sand. Studying Berenice in blue-silk +bathing costume and shoes, Cowperwood had been stung by the wonder +of passing life--how youth comes in, ever fresh and fresh, and +age goes out. Here he was, long crowded years of conflict and +experience behind him, and yet this twenty-year-old girl, with her +incisive mind and keen tastes, was apparently as wise in matters +of general import as himself. He could find no flaw in her armor +in those matters which they could discuss. Her knowledge and +comments were so ripe and sane, despite a tendency to pose a little, +which was quite within her rights. Because Greanelle had bored +her a little she had shunted him off and was amusing herself talking +to Cowperwood, who fascinated her by his compact individuality. + +"Do you know," she confided to him, on this occasion, "I get so +very tired of young men sometimes. They can be so inane. I do +declare, they are nothing more than shoes and ties and socks and +canes strung together in some unimaginable way. Vaughn Greanelle +is for all the world like a perambulating manikin to-day. He is +just an English suit with a cane attached walking about." + +"Well, bless my soul," commented Cowperwood, "what an indictment!" + +"It's true," she replied. "He knows nothing at all except polo, +and the latest swimming-stroke, and where everybody is, and who +is going to marry who. Isn't it dull?" + +She tossed her head back and breathed as though to exhale the fumes +of the dull and the inane from her inmost being. + +"Did you tell him that?" inquired Cowperwood, curiously. + +"Certainly I did." + +"I don't wonder he looks so solemn," he said, turning and looking +back at Greanelle and Mrs. Carter; they were sitting side by side +in sand-chairs, the former beating the sand with his toes. "You're +a curious girl, Berenice," he went on, familiarly. "You are so +direct and vital at times. + +"Not any more than you are, from all I can hear," she replied, +fixing him with those steady eyes. "Anyhow, why should I be +bored? He is so dull. He follows me around out here all the +time, and I don't want him." + +She tossed her head and began to run up the beach to where bathers +were fewer and fewer, looking back at Cowperwood as if to say, +"Why don't you follow?" He developed a burst of enthusiasm and ran +quite briskly, overtaking her near some shallows where, because +of a sandbar offshore, the waters were thin and bright. + +"Oh, look!" exclaimed Berenice, when he came up. "See, the fish! +O-oh!" + +She dashed in to where a few feet offshore a small school of minnows +as large as sardines were playing, silvery in the sun. She ran +as she had for the bird, doing her best to frighten them into a +neighboring pocket or pool farther up on the shore. Cowperwood, +as gay as a boy of ten, joined in the chase. He raced after them +briskly, losing one school, but pocketing another a little farther +on and calling to her to come. + +"Oh!" exclaimed Berenice at one point. "Here they are now. Come +quick! Drive them in here!" + +Her hair was blowy, her face a keen pink, her eyes an electric +blue by contrast. She was bending low over the water--Cowperwood +also--their hands outstretched, the fish, some five in all, nervously +dancing before them in their efforts to escape. All at once, +having forced them into a corner, they dived; Berenice actually +caught one. Cowperwood missed by a fraction, but drove the fish +she did catch into her hands. + +"Oh," she exclaimed, jumping up, "how wonderful! It's alive. I +caught it." + +She danced up and down, and Cowperwood, standing before her, was +sobered by her charm. He felt an impulse to speak to her of his +affection, to tell her how delicious she was to him. + +"You," he said, pausing over the word and giving it special +emphasis--"you are the only thing here that is wonderful to me." + +She looked at him a moment, the live fish in her extended hands, +her eyes keying to the situation. For the least fraction of a +moment she was uncertain, as he could see, how to take this. Many +men had been approximative before. It was common to have compliments +paid to her. But this was different. She said nothing, but fixed +him with a look which said quite plainly, "You had better not say +anything more just now, I think." Then, seeing that he understood, +that his manner softened, and that he was troubled, she crinkled +her nose gaily and added: "It's like fairyland. I feel as though +I had caught it out of another world." Cowperwood understood. The +direct approach was not for use in her case; and yet there was +something, a camaraderie, a sympathy which he felt and which she +felt. A girls' school, conventions, the need of socially placing +herself, her conservative friends, and their viewpoint--all were +working here. If he were only single now, she told herself, she +would be willing to listen to him in a very different spirit, for +he was charming. But this way-- And he, for his part, concluded +that here was one woman whom he would gladly marry if she would +have him. + + + + +Chapter XLVII + + + +American Match + +Following Cowperwood's coup in securing cash by means of his seeming +gift of three hundred thousand dollars for a telescope his enemies +rested for a time, but only because of a lack of ideas wherewith +to destroy him. Public sentiment--created by the newspapers--was +still against him. Yet his franchises had still from eight to ten +years to run, and meanwhile he might make himself unassailably +powerful. For the present he was busy, surrounded by his engineers +and managers and legal advisers, constructing his several elevated +lines at a whirlwind rate. At the same time, through Videra, +Kaffrath, and Addison, he was effecting a scheme of loaning money +on call to the local Chicago banks--the very banks which were most +opposed to him--so that in a crisis be could retaliate. By +manipulating the vast quantity of stocks and bonds of which he was +now the master he was making money hand over fist, his one rule +being that six per cent. was enough to pay any holder who had +merely purchased his stock as an outsider. It was most profitable +to himself. When his stocks earned more than that he issued new +ones, selling them on 'change and pocketing the difference. Out +of the cash-drawers of his various companies he took immense sums, +temporary loans, as it were, which later he had charged by his +humble servitors to "construction," "equipment," or "operation." +He was like a canny wolf prowling in a forest of trees of his own +creation. + +The weak note in this whole project of elevated lines was that for +some time it was destined to be unprofitable. Its very competition +tended to weaken the value of his surface-line companies. His +holdings in these as well as in elevated-road shares were immense. +If anything happened to cause them to fall in price immense numbers +of these same stocks held by others would be thrown on the market, +thus still further depreciating their value and compelling him to +come into the market and buy. With the most painstaking care he +began at once to pile up a reserve in government bonds for emergency +purposes, which he decided should be not less than eight or nine +million dollars, for he feared financial storms as well as financial +reprisal, and where so much was at stake he did not propose to be +caught napping. + +At the time that Cowperwood first entered on elevated-road +construction there was no evidence that any severe depression in +the American money-market was imminent. But it was not long before +a new difficulty began to appear. It was now the day of the trust +in all its watery magnificence. Coal, iron, steel, oil, machinery, +and a score of other commercial necessities had already been +"trustified," and others, such as leather, shoes, cordage, and the +like, were, almost hourly, being brought under the control of +shrewd and ruthless men. Already in Chicago Schryhart, Hand, +Arneel, Merrill, and a score of others were seeing their way to +amazing profits by underwriting these ventures which required ready +cash, and to which lesser magnates, content with a portion of the +leavings of Dives's table, were glad to bring to their attention. +On the other hand, in the nation at large there was growing up a +feeling that at the top there were a set of giants--Titans--who, +without heart or soul, and without any understanding of or sympathy +with the condition of the rank and file, were setting forth to +enchain and enslave them. The vast mass, writhing in ignorance +and poverty, finally turned with pathetic fury to the cure-all of +a political leader in the West. This latter prophet, seeing gold +becoming scarcer and scarcer and the cash and credits of the land +falling into the hands of a few who were manipulating them for +their own benefit, had decided that what was needed was a greater +volume of currency, so that credits would be easier and money +cheaper to come by in the matter of interest. Silver, of which +there was a superabundance in the mines, was to be coined at the +ratio of sixteen dollars of silver for every one of gold in +circulation, and the parity of the two metals maintained by fiat +of government. Never again should the few be able to make a +weapon of the people's medium of exchange in order to bring about +their undoing. There was to be ample money, far beyond the control +of central banks and the men in power over them. It was a splendid +dream worthy of a charitable heart, but because of it a disturbing +war for political control of the government was shortly threatened +and soon began. The money element, sensing the danger of change +involved in the theories of the new political leader, began to +fight him and the element in the Democratic party which he +represented. The rank and file of both parties--the more or less +hungry and thirsty who lie ever at the bottom on both sides--hailed +him as a heaven-sent deliverer, a new Moses come to lead them out +of the wilderness of poverty and distress. Woe to the political +leader who preaches a new doctrine of deliverance, and who, out +of tenderness of heart, offers a panacea for human ills. His truly +shall be a crown of thorns. + +Cowperwood, no less than other men of wealth, was opposed to what +he deemed a crack-brained idea--that of maintaining a parity between +gold and silver by law. Confiscation was his word for it--the +confiscation of the wealth of the few for the benefit of the many. +Most of all was he opposed to it because he feared that this +unrest, which was obviously growing, foreshadowed a class war in +which investors would run to cover and money be locked in strong-boxes. +At once he began to shorten sail, to invest only in the soundest +securities, and to convert all his weaker ones into cash. + +To meet current emergencies, however, he was compelled to borrow +heavily here and there, and in doing so he was quick to note that +those banks representing his enemies in Chicago and elsewhere were +willing to accept his various stocks as collateral, providing he +would accept loans subject to call. He did so gladly, at the same +time suspecting Hand, Schryhart, Arneel, and Merrill of some scheme +to wreck him, providing they could get him where the calling of +his loans suddenly and in concert would financially embarrass him. +"I think I know what that crew are up to, he once observed to +Addison, at this period. "Well, they will have to rise very early +in the morning if they catch me napping." + +The thing that he suspected was really true. Schryhart, Hand, and +Arneel, watching him through their agents and brokers, had soon +discovered--in the very earliest phases of the silver agitation and +before the real storm broke--that he was borrowing in New York, +in London, in certain quarters of Chicago, and elsewhere. "It +looks to me, said Schryhart, one day, to his friend Arneel, "as +if our friend has gotten in a little too deep. He has overreached +himself. These elevated-road schemes of his have eaten up too +much capital. There is another election coming on next fall, and +he knows we are going to fight tooth and nail. He needs money to +electrify his surface lines. If we could trace out exactly where +he stands, and where he has borrowed, we might know what to do." + +"Unless I am greatly mistaken," replied Arneel, "he is in a tight +place or is rapidly getting there. This silver agitation is +beginning to weaken stocks and tighten money. I suggest that our +banks here loan him all the money he wants on call. When the time +comes, if he isn't ready, we can shut him up tighter than a drum. +If we can pick up any other loans he's made anywhere else, well +and good." + +Mr. Arneel said this without a shadow of bitterness or humor. In +some tight hour, perhaps, now fast approaching, Mr. Cowperwood +would be promised salvation--"saved" on condition that he should +leave Chicago forever. There were those who would take over his +property in the interest of the city and upright government and +administer it accordingly. + +Unfortunately, at this very time Messrs. Hand, Schryhart, and +Arneel were themselves concerned in a little venture to which the +threatened silver agitation could bode nothing but ill. This +concerned so simple a thing as matches, a commodity which at this +time, along with many others, had been trustified and was yielding +a fine profit. "American Match" was a stock which was already +listed on every exchange and which was selling steadily around one +hundred and twenty. + +The geniuses who had first planned a combination of all match +concerns and a monopoly of the trade in America were two men, +Messrs. Hull and Stackpole--bankers and brokers, primarily. Mr. +Phineas Hull was a small, ferret-like, calculating man with a +sparse growth of dusty-brown hair and an eyelid, the right one, +which was partially paralyzed and drooped heavily, giving him a +characterful and yet at times a sinister expression. + +His partner, Mr. Benoni Stackpole, had been once a stage-driver +in Arkansas, and later a horse-trader. He was a man of great force +and calculation--large, oleaginous, politic, and courageous. +Without the ultimate brain capacity of such men as Arneel, Hand, +and Merrill, he was, nevertheless, resourceful and able. He had +started somewhat late in the race for wealth, but now, with all +his strength, he was endeavoring to bring to fruition this plan +which, with the aid of Hull, he had formulated. Inspired by the +thought of great wealth, they had first secured control of the +stock of one match company, and had then put themselves in a +position to bargain with the owners of others. The patents and +processes controlled by one company and another had been combined, +and the field had been broadened as much as possible. + +But to do all this a great deal of money had been required, much +more than was in possession of either Hull or Stackpole. Both of +them being Western men, they looked first to Western capital. +Hand, Schryhart, Arneel, and Merrill were in turn appealed to, and +great blocks of the new stock were sold to them at inside figures. +By the means thus afforded the combination proceeded apace. +Patents for exclusive processes were taken over from all sides, +and the idea of invading Europe and eventually controlling the +market of the world had its inception. At the same time it occurred +to each and all of their lordly patrons that it would be a splendid +thing if the stock they had purchased at forty-five, and which was +now selling in open market at one hundred and twenty, should go +to three hundred, where, if these monopolistic dreams were true, +it properly belonged. A little more of this stock--the destiny +of which at this time seemed sure and splendid--would not be amiss. +And so there began a quiet campaign on the part of each capitalist +to gather enough of it to realize a true fortune on the rise. + +A game of this kind is never played with the remainder of the +financial community entirely unaware of what is on foot. In the +inner circles of brokerage life rumors were soon abroad that a +tremendous boom was in store for American Match. Cowperwood heard +of it through Addison, always at the center of financial rumor, +and the two of them bought heavily, though not so heavily but that +they could clear out at any time with at least a slight margin in +their favor. During a period of eight months the stock slowly +moved upward, finally crossing the two-hundred mark and reaching +two-twenty, at which figure both Addison and Cowperwood sold, +realizing nearly a million between them on their investment. + +In the mean time the foreshadowed political storm was brewing. +At first a cloud no larger than a man's hand, it matured swiftly +in the late months of 1895, and by the spring of 1896 it had become +portentous and was ready to burst. With the climacteric nomination +of the "Apostle of Free Silver" for President of the United States, +which followed in July, a chill settled down over the conservative +and financial elements of the country. What Cowperwoodhad wisely +proceeded to do months before, others less far-seeing, from Maine +to California and from the Gulf to Canada, began to do now. +Bank-deposits were in part withdrawn; feeble or uncertain securities +were thrown upon the market. All at once Schryhart, Arneel, Hand, +and Merrill realized that they were in more or less of a trap in +regard to their large holdings in American Match. Having gathered +vast quantities of this stock, which had been issued in blocks of +millions, it was now necessary to sustain the market or sell at a +loss. Since money was needed by many holders, and this stock was +selling at two-twenty, telegraphic orders began to pour in from +all parts of the country to sell on the Chicago Exchange, where +the deal was being engineered and where the market obviously +existed. All of the instigators of the deal conferred, and decided +to sustain the market. Messrs. Hull and Stackpole, being the +nominal heads of the trust, were delegated to buy, they in turn +calling on the principal investors to take their share, pro rata. +Hand, Schryhart, Arneel, and Merrill, weighted with this inpouring +flood of stock, which they had to take at two-twenty, hurried to +their favorite banks, hypothecating vast quantities at one-fifty +and over, and using the money so obtained to take care of the +additional shares which they were compelled to buy. + +At last, however, their favorite banks were full to overflowing +and at the danger-point. They could take no more. + +"No, no, no!" Hand declared to Phineas Hull over the 'phone. "I +can't risk another dollar in this venture, and I won't! It's a +perfect proposition. I realize all its merits just as well as you +do. But enough is enough. I tell you a financial slump is coming. +That's the reason all this stock is coming out now. I am willing +to protect my interests in this thing up to a certain point. As +I told you, I agree not to throw a single share on the market of +all that I now have. But more than that I cannot do. The other +gentlemen in this agreement will have to protect themselves as +best they can. I have other things to look out for that are just +as important to me, and more so, than American Match." + +It was the same with Mr. Schryhart, who, stroking a crisp, black +mustache, was wondering whether he had not better throw over what +holdings he had and clear out; however, he feared the rage of Hand +and Arneel for breaking the market and thus bringing on a local +panic. It was risky business. Arneel and Merrill finally agreed +to hold firm to what they had; but, as they told Mr. Hull, nothing +could induce them to "protect" another share, come what might. + +In this crisis naturally Messrs. Hull and Stackpole--estimable +gentlemen both--were greatly depressed. By no means so wealthy as +their lofty patrons, their private fortunes were in much greater +jeopardy. They were eager to make any port in so black a storm. +Witness, then, the arrival of Benoni Stackpole at the office of +Frank Algernon Cowperwood. He was at the end of his tether, and +Cowperwood was the only really rich man in the city not yet involved +in this speculation. In the beginning he had heard both Hand and +Schryhart say that they did not care to become involved if Cowperwood +was in any way, shape, or manner to be included, but that had been +over a year ago, and Schryhart and Hand were now, as it were, +leaving both him and his partner to their fates. They could have +no objection to his dealing with Cowperwood in this crisis if he +could make sure that the magnate would not sell him out. Mr. +Stackpole was six feet one in his socks and weighed two hundred +and thirty pounds. Clad in a brown linen suit and straw hat (for +it was late July), he carried a palm-leaf fan as well as his +troublesome stocks in a small yellow leather bag. He was wet with +perspiration and in a gloomy state of mind. Failure was staring +him in the face--giant failure. If American Match fell below two +hundred he would have to close his doors as banker and broker and, +in view of what he was carrying, he and Hull would fail for +approximately twenty million dollars. Messrs. Hand, Schryhart, +Arneel, and Merrill would lose in the neighborhood of six or eight +millions between them. The local banks would suffer in proportion, +though not nearly so severely, for, loaning at one-fifty, they +would only sacrifice the difference between that and the lowest +point to which the stock might fall. + +Cowperwood eyed the new-comer, when he entered, with an equivocal +eye, for he knew well now what was coming. Only a few days before +he had predicted an eventual smash to Addison. + +"Mr. Cowperwood," began Stackpole, "in this bag I have fifteen +thousand shares of American Match, par value one million five +hundred thousand dollars, market value three million three hundred +thousand at this moment, and worth every cent of three hundred +dollars a share and more. I don't know how closely you have been +following the developments of American Match. We own all the +patents on labor-saving machines and, what's more, we're just about +to close contracts with Italy and France to lease our machines and +processes to them for pretty nearly one million dollars a year +each. We're dickering with Austria and England, and of course +we'll take up other countries later. The American Match Company +will yet make matches for the whole world, whether I'm connected +with it or not. This silver agitation has caught us right in +mid-ocean, and we're having a little trouble weathering the storm. +I'm a perfectly frank man when it comes to close business relations +of this kind, and I'm going to tell you just how things stand. +If we can scull over this rough place that has come up on account +of the silver agitation our stock will go to three hundred before +the first of the year. Now, if you want to take it you can have +it outright at one hundred and fifty dollars--that is, providing +you'll agree not to throw any of it back on the market before next +December; or, if you won't promise that" (he paused to see if by +any chance he could read Cowperwood's inscrutable face) "I want +you to loan me one hundred and fifty dollars a share on these for +thirty days at least at ten or fifteen, or whatever rate you care +to fix." + +Cowperwood interlocked his fingers and twiddled his thumbs as he +contemplated this latest evidence of earthly difficulty and +uncertainty. Time and chance certainly happened to all men, and +here was one opportunity of paying out those who had been nagging +him. To take this stock at one-fifty on loan and peddle it out +swiftly and fully at two-twenty or less would bring American +Match crumbling about their ears. When it was selling at one-fifty +or less he could buy it back, pocket his profit, complete his deal +with Mr. Stackpole, pocket his interest, and smile like the well-fed +cat in the fable. It was as simple as twiddling his thumbs, which +he was now doing. + +"Who has been backing this stock here in Chicago besides yourself +and Mr. Hull?" he asked, pleasantly. "I think that I already know, +but I should like to be certain if you have no objection." + +"None in the least, none in the least," replied Mr. Stackpole, +accommodatingly. "Mr. Hand, Mr. Schryhart, Mr. Arneel, and Mr. +Merrill." + +"That is what I thought," commented Cowperwood, easily. "They +can't take this up for you? Is that it? Saturated?" + +"Saturated," agreed Mr. Stackpole, dully. "But there's one thing +I'd have to stipulate in accepting a loan on these. Not a share +must be thrown on the market, or, at least, not before I have +failed to respond to your call. I have understood that there is +a little feeling between you and Mr. Hand and the other gentlemen +I have mentioned. But, as I say--and I'm talking perfectly frankly +now--I'm in a corner, and it's any port in a storm. If you want +to help me I'll make the best terms I can, and I won't forget the +favor." + +He opened the bag and began to take out the securities--long +greenish-yellow bundles, tightly gripped in the center by thick +elastic bands. They were in bundles of one thousand shares each. +Since Stackpole half proffered them to him, Cowperwood took them +in one hand and lightly weighed them up and down. + +"I'm sorry, Mr. Stackpole," he said, sympathetically, after a +moment of apparent reflection, "but I cannot possibly help you in +this matter. I'm too involved in other things myself, and I do not +often indulge in stock-peculations of any kind. I have no particular +malice toward any one of the gentlemen you mention. I do not +trouble to dislike all who dislike me. I might, of course, if I +chose, take these stocks and pay them out and throw them on the +market to-morrow, but I have no desire to do anything of the sort. +I only wish I could help you, and if I thought I could carry them +safely for three or four months I would. As it is--" He lifted +his eyebrows sympathetically. "Have you tried all the bankers in +town?" + +"Practically every one." + +"And they can't help you?" + +"They are carrying all they can stand now." + +"Too bad. I'm sorry, very. By the way, do you happen, by any +chance, to know Mr. Millard Bailey or Mr. Edwin Kaffrath?" + +"No, I don't," replied Stackpole, hopefully. + +"Well, now, there are two men who are much richer than is generally +supposed. They often have very large sums at their disposal. You +might look them up on a chance. Then there's my friend Videra. +I don't know how he is fixed at present. You can always find him +at the Twelfth Ward Bank. He might be inclined to take a good +portion of that--I don't know. He's much better off than most +people seem to think. I wonder you haven't been directed to some +one of these men before." (As a matter of fact, no one of the +individuals in question would have been interested to take a dollar +of this loan except on Cowperwood's order, but Stackpole had no +reason for knowing this. They were not prominently identified +with the magnate.) + +"Thank you very much. I will," observed Stackpole, restoring his +undesired stocks to his bag. + +Cowperwood, with an admirable show of courtesy, called a stenographer, +and pretended to secure for his guest the home addresses of these +gentlemen. He then bade Mr. Stackpole an encouraging farewell. +The distrait promoter at once decided to try not only Bailey and +Kaffrath, but Videra; but even as he drove toward the office of +the first-mentioned Cowperwood was personally busy reaching him +by telephone. + +"I say, Bailey," he called, when he had secured the wealthy lumberman +on the wire, "Benoni Stackpole, of Hull & Stackpole, was here to +see me just now." + +"Yes." + +"He has with him fifteen thousand shares of American Match--par +value one hundred, market value to-day two-twenty." + +"Yes." + +"He is trying to hypothecate the lot or any part of it at one-fifty." + +"Yes." + +"You know what the trouble with American Match is, don't you?" + +"No. I only know it's being driven up to where it is now by a +bull campaign." + +"Well, listen to me. It's going to break. American Match is going +to bust." + +"Yes." + +"But I want you to loan this man five hundred thousand dollars at +one-twenty or less and then recommend that he go to Edwin Kaffrath +or Anton Videra for the balance." + +"But, Frank, I haven't any five hundred thousand to spare. You +say American Match is going to bust." + +"I know you haven't, but draw the check on the Chicago Trust, and +Addison will honor it. Send the stock to me and forget all about +it. I will do the rest. But under no circumstances mention my +name, and don't appear too eager. Not more than one-twenty at the +outside, do you hear? and less if you can get it. You recognize +my voice, do you?" + +"Perfectly." + +"Drive over afterward if you have time and let me know what happens." + +"Very good," commented Mr. Bailey, in a businesslike way. + +Cowperwood next called for Mr. Kaffrath. Conversing to similar +effect with that individual and with Videra, before three-quarters +of an hour Cowperwood had arranged completely for Mr. Stackpole's +tour. He was to have his total loan at one-twenty or less. Checks +were to be forthcoming at once. Different banks were to be drawn +on--banks other than the Chicago Trust Company. Cowperwood would +see, in some roundabout way, that these checks were promptly +honored, whether the cash was there or not. In each case the +hypothecated stocks were to be sent to him. Then, having seen to +the perfecting of this little programme, and that the banks to be +drawn upon in this connection understood perfectly that the checks +in question were guaranteed by him or others, he sat down to await +the arrival of his henchmen and the turning of the stock into his +private safe. + + + + +Chapter XLVIII + + + +Panic + +On August 4, 1896, the city of Chicago, and for that matter the +entire financial world, was startled and amazed by the collapse +of American Match, one of the strongest of market securities, and +the coincident failure of Messrs. Hull and Stackpole, its ostensible +promoters, for twenty millions. As early as eleven o'clock of the +preceding day the banking and brokerage world of Chicago, trading +in this stock, was fully aware that something untoward was on foot +in connection with it. Owing to the high price at which the stock +was "protected," and the need of money to liquidate, blocks of +this stock from all parts of the country were being rushed to the +market with the hope of realizing before the ultimate break. About +the stock-exchange, which frowned like a gray fortress at the foot +of La Salle Street, all was excitement--as though a giant anthill +had been ruthlessly disturbed. Clerks and messengers hurried to +and fro in confused and apparently aimless directions. Brokers +whose supply of American Match had been apparently exhausted on +the previous day now appeared on 'change bright and early, and at +the clang of the gong began to offer the stock in sizable lots of +from two hundred to five hundred shares. The agents of Hull & +Stackpole were in the market, of course, in the front rank of the +scrambling, yelling throng, taking up whatever stock appeared at +the price they were hoping to maintain. The two promoters were +in touch by 'phone and wire not only with those various important +personages whom they had induced to enter upon this bull campaign, +but with their various clerks and agents on 'change. Naturally, +under the circumstances both were in a gloomy frame of mind. This +game was no longer moving in those large, easy sweeps which +characterize the more favorable aspects of high finance. Sad to +relate, as in all the troubled flumes of life where vast currents +are compressed in narrow, tortuous spaces, these two men were now +concerned chiefly with the momentary care of small but none the +less heartbreaking burdens. Where to find fifty thousand to take +care of this or that burden of stock which was momentarily falling +upon them? They were as two men called upon, with their limited +hands and strength, to seal up the ever-increasing crevices of a +dike beyond which raged a mountainous and destructive sea. + +At eleven o'clock Mr. Phineas Hull rose from the chair which sat +before his solid mahogany desk, and confronted his partner. + +"I'll tell you, Ben," he said, "I'm afraid we can't make this. +We've hypothecated so much of this stock around town that we can't +possibly tell who's doing what. I know as well as I'm standing +on this floor that some one, I can't say which one, is selling us +out. You don't suppose it could be Cowperwood or any of those +people he sent to us, do you?" + +Stackpole, worn by his experiences of the past few weeks, was +inclined to be irritable. + +"How should I know, Phineas?" he inquired, scowling in troubled +thought. "I don't think so. I didn't notice any signs that they +were interested in stock-gambling. Anyhow, we had to have the +money in some form. Any one of the whole crowd is apt to get +frightened now at any moment and throw the whole thing over. We're +in a tight place, that's plain." + +For the fortieth time he plucked at a too-tight collar and pulled +up his shirt-sleeves, for it was stifling, and he was coatless and +waistcoatless. Just then Mr. Hull's telephone bell rang--the one +connecting with the firm's private office on 'change, and the +latter jumped to seize the receiver. + +"Yes?" he inquired, irritably. + +"Two thousand shares of American offered at two-twenty! Shall I +take them?" + +The man who was 'phoning was in sight of another man who stood at +the railing of the brokers' gallery overlooking "the pit," or +central room of the stock-exchange, and who instantly transferred +any sign he might receive to the man on the floor. So Mr. Hull's +"yea" or "nay" would be almost instantly transmuted into a cash +transaction on 'change. + +"What do you think of that?" asked Hull of Stackpole, putting his +hand over the receiver's mouth, his right eyelid drooping heavier +than ever. "Two thousand more to take up! Where d'you suppose +they are coming from? Tch!" + +"Well, the bottom's out, that's all," replied Stackpole, heavily +and gutturally. "We can't do what we can't do. I say this, though: +support it at two-twenty until three o'clock. Then we'll figure +up where we stand and what we owe. And meanwhile I'll see what I +can do. If the banks won't help us and Arneel and that crowd want +to get from under, we'll fail, that's all; but not before I've had +one more try, by Jericho! They may not help us, but--" + +Actually Mr. Stackpole did not see what was to be done unless +Messrs. Hand, Schryhart, Merrill, and Arneel were willing to risk +much more money, but it grieved and angered him to think he and +Hull should be thus left to sink without a sigh. He had tried +Kaffrath, Videra, and Bailey, but they were adamant. Thus cogitating, +Stackpole put on his wide-brimmed straw hat and went out. It was +nearly ninety-six in the shade. The granite and asphalt pavements +of the down-town district reflected a dry, Turkish-bath-room heat. +There was no air to speak of. The sky was a burning, milky blue, +with the sun gleaming feverishly upon the upper walls of the tall +buildings. + +Mr. Hand, in his seventh-story suite of offices in the Rookery +Building, was suffering from the heat, but much more from mental +perturbation. Though not a stingy or penurious man, it was still +true that of all earthly things he suffered most from a financial +loss. How often had he seen chance or miscalculation sweep +apparently strong and valiant men into the limbo of the useless +and forgotten! Since the alienation of his wife's affections by +Cowperwood, he had scarcely any interest in the world outside his +large financial holdings, which included profitable investments +in a half-hundred companies. But they must pay, pay, pay heavily +in interest--all of them--and the thought that one of them might +become a failure or a drain on his resources was enough to give +him an almost physical sensation of dissatisfaction and unrest, +a sort of spiritual and mental nausea which would cling to him +for days and days or until he had surmounted the difficulty. Mr. +Hand had no least corner in his heart for failure. + +As a matter of fact, the situation in regard to American Match had +reached such proportions as to be almost numbing. Aside from the +fifteen thousand shares which Messrs. Hull and Stackpole had +originally set aside for themselves, Hand, Arneel, Schryhart, and +Merrill had purchased five thousand shares each at forty, but had +since been compelled to sustain the market to the extent of over +five thousand shares more each, at prices ranging from one-twenty +to two-twenty, the largest blocks of shares having been bought at +the latter figure. Actually Hand was caught for nearly one million +five hundred thousand dollars, and his soul was as gray as a bat's +wing. At fifty-seven years of age men who are used only to the +most successful financial calculations and the credit that goes +with unerring judgment dread to be made a mark by chance or fate. +It opens the way for comment on their possibly failing vitality +or judgment. And so Mr. Hand sat on this hot August afternoon, +ensconced in a large carved mahogany chair in the inner recesses +of his inner offices, and brooded. Only this morning, in the face +of a falling market, he would have sold out openly had he not been +deterred by telephone messages from Arneel and Schryhart suggesting +the advisability of a pool conference before any action was taken. +Come what might on the morrow, he was determined to quit unless +he saw some clear way out--to be shut of the whole thing unless +the ingenuity of Stackpole and Hull should discover a way of +sustaining the market without his aid. While he was meditating +on how this was to be done Mr. Stackpole appeared, pale, gloomy, +wet with perspiration. + +"Well, Mr. Hand," he exclaimed, wearily, "I've done all I can. +Hull and I have kept the market fairly stable so far. You saw +what happened between ten and eleven this morning. The jig's up. +We've borrowed our last dollar and hypothecated our last share. +My personal fortune has gone into the balance, and so has Hull's. +Some one of the outside stockholders, or all of them, are cutting +the ground from under us. Fourteen thousand shares since ten +o'clock this morning! That tells the story. It can't be done just +now--not unless you gentlemen are prepared to go much further than +you have yet gone. If we could organize a pool to take care of +fifteen thousand more shares--" + +Mr. Stackpole paused, for Mr. Hand was holding up a fat, pink digit. + +"No more of that," he was saying, solemnly. "It can't be done. +I, for one, won't sink another dollar in this proposition at this +time. I'd rather throw what I have on the market and take what I +can get. I am sure the others feel the same way." + +Mr. Hand, to play safe, had hypothecated nearly all his shares +with various banks in order to release his money for other purposes, +and he knew he would not dare to throw over all his holdings, just +as he knew he would have to make good at the figure at which they +had been margined. But it was a fine threat to make. + +Mr. Stackpole stared ox-like at Mr. Hand. + +"Very well," he said, "I might as well go back, then, and post a +notice on our front door. We bought fourteen thousand shares and +held the market where it is, but we haven't a dollar to pay for +them with. Unless the banks or some one will take them over for +us we're gone--we're bankrupt." + +Mr. Hand, who knew that if Mr. Stackpole carried out this decision +it meant the loss of his one million five hundred thousand, halted +mentally. "Have you been to all the banks?" he asked. "What does +Lawrence, of the Prairie National, have to say?" + +"It's the same with all of them," replied Stackpole, now quite +desperate, "as it is with you. They have all they can carry--every +one. It's this damned silver agitation--that's it, and nothing +else. There's nothing the matter with this stock. It will right +itself in a few months. It's sure to." + +"Will it?" commented Mr. Hand, sourly. "That depends on what +happens next November." (He was referring to the coming national +election.) + +"Yes, I know," sighed Mr. Stackpole, seeing that it was a condition, +and not a theory, that confronted him. Then, suddenly clenching +his right hand, he exclaimed, "Damn that upstart!" (He was thinking +of the "Apostle of Free Silver.") "He's the cause of all this. +Well, if there's nothing to be done I might as well be going. +There's all those shares we bought to-day which we ought to be +able to hypothecate with somebody. It would be something if we +could get even a hundred and twenty on them." + +"Very true," replied Hand. "I wish it could be done. I, personally, +cannot sink any more money. But why don't you go and see Schryhart +and Arneel? I've been talking to them, and they seem to be in a +position similar to my own; but if they are willing to confer, I +am. I don't see what's to be done, but it may be that all of us +together might arrange some way of heading off the slaughter of +the stock to-morrow. I don't know. If only we don't have to +suffer too great a decline." + +Mr. Hand was thinking that Messrs. Hull and Stackpole might be +forced to part with all their remaining holdings at fifty cents +on the dollar or less. Then if it could possibly be taken and +carried by the united banks for them (Schryhart, himself, Arneel) +and sold at a profit later, he and his associates might recoup +some of their losses. The local banks at the behest of the big +quadrumvirate might be coerced into straining their resources still +further. But how was this to be done? How, indeed? + +It was Schryhart who, in pumping and digging at Stackpole when he +finally arrived there, managed to extract from him the truth in +regard to his visit to Cowperwood. As a matter of fact, Schryhart +himself had been guilty this very day of having thrown two thousand +shares of American Match on the market unknown to his confreres. +Naturally, he was eager to learn whether Stackpole or any one else +had the least suspicion that he was involved. As a consequence +he questioned Stackpole closely, and the latter, being anxious as +to the outcome of his own interests, was not unwilling to make a +clean breast. He had the justification in his own mind that the +quadrumvirate had been ready to desert him anyhow. + +"Why did you go to him?" exclaimed Schryhart, professing to be +greatly astonished and annoyed, as, indeed, in one sense he was. +"I thought we had a distinct understanding in the beginning that +under no circumstances was he to be included in any portion of +this. You might as well go to the devil himself for assistance +as go there." At the same time he was thinking "How fortunate!" +Here was not only a loophole for himself in connection with his +own subtle side-plays, but also, if the quadrumvirate desired, an +excuse for deserting the troublesome fortunes of Hull & Stackpole. + +"Well, the truth is," replied Stackpole, somewhat sheepishly and +yet defiantly, "last Thursday I had fifteen thousand shares on +which I had to raise money. Neither you nor any of the others +wanted any more. The banks wouldn't take them. I called up Rambaud +on a chance, and he suggested Cowperwood." + +As has been related, Stackpole had really gone to Cowperwood direct, +but a lie under the circumstances seemed rather essential. + +"Rambaud!" sneered Schryhart. "Cowperwood's man--he and all the +others. You couldn't have gone to a worse crowd if you had tried. +So that's where this stock is coming from, beyond a doubt. That +fellow or his friends are selling us out. You might have known +he'd do it. He hates us. So you're through, are you?--not another +single trick to turn?" + +"Not one," replied Stackpole, solemnly. + +"Well, that's too bad. You have acted most unwisely in going to +Cowperwood; but we shall have to see what can be done." + +Schryhart's idea, like that of Hand, was to cause Hull & Stackpole +to relinquish all their holdings for nothing to the banks in order +that, under pressure, the latter might carry the stocks he and the +others had hypothecated with them until such a time as the company +might be organized at a profit. At the same time he was intensely +resentful against Cowperwood for having by any fluke of circumstance +reaped so large a profit as he must have done. Plainly, the present +crisis had something to do with him. Schryhart was quick to call +up Hand and Arneel, after Stackpole had gone, suggesting a conference, +and together, an hour later, at Arneel's office, they foregathered +along with Merrill to discuss this new and very interesting +development. As a matter of fact, during the course of the afternoon +all of these gentlemen had been growing more and more uneasy. Not +that between them they were not eminently capable of taking care +of their own losses, but the sympathetic effect of such a failure +as this (twenty million dollars), to say nothing of its reaction +upon the honor of themselves and the city as a financial center, +was a most unsatisfactory if not disastrous thing to contemplate, +and now this matter of Cowperwood's having gained handsomely by +it all was added to their misery. Both Hand and Arneel growled +in opposition when they heard, and Merrill meditated, as he usually +did, on the wonder of Cowperwood's subtlety. He could not help +liking him. + +There is a sort of municipal pride latent in the bosoms of most +members of a really thriving community which often comes to the +surface under the most trying circumstances. These four men were +by no means an exception to this rule. Messrs. Schryhart, Hand, +Arneel, and Merrill were concerned as to the good name of Chicago +and their united standing in the eyes of Eastern financiers. It +was a sad blow to them to think that the one great enterprise they +had recently engineered--a foil to some of the immense affairs +which had recently had their geneses in New York and elsewhere +--should have come to so untimely an end. Chicago finance really +should not be put to shame in this fashion if it could be avoided. +So that when Mr. Schryhart arrived, quite warm and disturbed, and +related in detail what he had just learned, his friends listened +to him with eager and wary ears. + +It was now between five and six o'clock in the afternoon and still +blazing outside, though the walls of the buildings on the opposite +side of the street were a cool gray, picked out with pools of black +shadow. A newsboy's strident voice was heard here and there calling +an extra, mingled with the sound of homing feet and street-cars +--Cowperwood's street-cars. + +"I'll tell you what it is," said Scbryhart, finally. "It seems +to me we have stood just about enough of this man's beggarly +interference. I'll admit that neither Hull nor Stackpole had any +right to go to him. They laid themselves and us open to just such +a trick as has been worked in this case." Mr. Schryhart was +righteously incisive, cold, immaculate, waspish. "At the same +time," he continued, "any other moneyed man of equal standing with +ourselves would have had the courtesy to confer with us and give +us, or at least our banks, an opportunity for taking over these +securities. He would have come to our aid for Chicago's sake. +He had no occasion for throwing these stocks on the market, +considering the state of things. He knows very well what the +effect of their failure will be. The whole city is involved, but +it's little he cares. Mr. Stackpole tells me that he had an express +understanding with him, or, rather, with the men who it is plain +have been representing him, that not a single share of this stock +was to be thrown on the market. As it is, I venture to say not a +single share of it is to be found anywhere in any of their safes. +I can sympathize to a certain extent with poor Stackpole. His +position, of course, was very trying. But there is no excuse--none +in the world--for such a stroke of trickery on Cowperwood's part. +It's just as we've known all along--the man is nothing but a +wrecker. We certainly ought to find some method of ending his +career here if possible." + +Mr. Schryhart kicked out his well-rounded legs, adjusted his +soft-roll collar, and smoothed his short, crisp, wiry, now +blackish-gray mustache. His black eyes flashed an undying hate. + +At this point Mr. Arneel, with a cogency of reasoning which did +not at the moment appear on the surface, inquired: "Do any of you +happen to know anything in particular about the state of Mr. +Cowperwood's finances at present? Of course we know of the Lake +Street 'L' and the Northwestern. I hear he's building a house in +New York, and I presume that's drawing on him somewhat. I know +he has four hundred thousand dollars in loans from the Chicago +Central; but what else has he?" + +"Well, there's the two hundred thousand he owes the Prairie +National," piped up Schrybart, promptly. "From time to time I've +heard of several other sums that escape my mind just now." + +Mr. Merrill, a diplomatic mouse of a man--gray, Parisian, dandified +--was twisting in his large chair, surveying the others with shrewd +though somewhat propitiatory eyes. In spite of his old grudge +against Cowperwood because of the latter's refusal to favor him +in the matter of running street-car lines past his store, he had +always been interested in the man as a spectacle. He really +disliked the thought of plotting to injure Cowperwood. Just the +same, he felt it incumbent to play his part in such a council as +this. "My financial agent, Mr. Hill, loaned him several hundred +thousand not long ago," he volunteered, a little doubtfully. "I +presume he has many other outstanding obligations." + +Mr. Hand stirred irritably. + +"Well, he's owing the Third National and the Lake City as much if +not more," he commented. "I know where there are five hundred +thousand dollars of his loans that haven't been mentioned here. +Colonel Ballinger has two hundred thousand. He must owe Anthony +Ewer all of that. He owes the Drovers and Traders all of one +hundred and fifty thousand." + +On the basis of these suggestions Arneel made a mental calculation, +and found that Cowperwood was indebted apparently to the tune of +about three million dollars on call, if not more. + +"I haven't all the facts," he said, at last, slowly and distinctly. +"If we could talk with some of the presidents of our banks to-night, +we should probably find that there are other items of which we do +not know. I do not like to be severe on any one, but our own +situation is serious. Unless something is done to-night Hull & +Stackpole will certainly fail in the morning. We are, of course, +obligated to the various banks for our loans, and we are in honor +bound to do all we can for them. The good name of Chicago and its +rank as a banking center is to a certain extent involved. As I +have already told Mr. Stackpole and Mr. Hull, I personally have +gone as far as I can in this matter. I suppose it is the same +with each of you. The only other resources we have under the +circumstances are the banks, and they, as I understand it, are +pretty much involved with stock on hypothecation. I know at least +that this is true of the Lake City and the Douglas Trust." + +"It's true of nearly all of them," said Hand. Both Schryhart and +Merrill nodded assent. + +"We are not obligated to Mr. Cowperwood for anything so far as I +know," continued Mr. Arneel, after a slight but somewhat portentous +pause. "As Mr. Schryhart has suggested here to-day, he seems to +have a tendency to interfere and disturb on every occasion. +Apparently he stands obligated to the various banks in the sums +we have mentioned. Why shouldn't his loans be called? It would +help strengthen the local banks, and possibly permit them to aid +in meeting this situation for us. While he might be in a position +to retaliate, I doubt it." + +Mr. Arneel had no personal opposition to Cowperwood--none, at +least, of a deep-seated character. At the same time Hand, Merrill, +and Schryhart were his friends. In him, they felt, centered the +financial leadership of the city. The rise of Cowperwood, his +Napoleonic airs, threatened this. As Mr. Arneel talked he never +raised his eyes from the desk where he was sitting. He merely +drummed solemnly on the surface with his fingers. The others +contemplated him a little tensely, catching quite clearly the drift +of his proposal. + +"An excellent idea--excellent!" exclaimed Schryhart. "I will join +in any programme that looks to the elimination of this man. The +present situation may be just what is needed to accomplish this. +Anyhow, it may help to solve our difficulty. If so, it will +certainly be a case of good coming out of evil." + +"I see no reason why these loans should not be called," Hand +commented. "I'm willing to meet the situation on that basis." + +"And I have no particular objection," said Merrill. "I think, +however, it would be only fair to give as much notice as possible +of any decision we may reach," he added. + +"Why not send for the various bankers now," suggested Schryhart, +"and find out exactly where he stands, and how much it will take +to carry Hull & Stackpole? Then we can inform Mr. Cowperwood of +what we propose to do." + +To this proposition Mr. Hand nodded an assent, at the same time +consulting a large, heavily engraved gold watch of the most ponderous +and inartistic design. "I think," he said, "that we have found +the solution to this situation at last. I suggest that we get +Candish and Kramer, of the stock-exchange" (he was referring to +the president and secretary, respectively, of that organization), +"and Simmons, of the Douglas Trust. We should soon be able to tell +what we can do." + +The library of Mr. Arneel's home was fixed upon as the most suitable +rendezvous. Telephones were forthwith set ringing and messengers +and telegrams despatched in order that the subsidiary financial +luminaries and the watch-dogs of the various local treasuries +might come and, as it were, put their seal on this secret decision, +which it was obviously presumed no minor official or luminary would +have the temerity to gainsay. + + + + +Chapter XLIX + + + +Mount Olympus + +By eight o'clock, at which hour the conference was set, the principal +financial personages of Chicago were truly in a great turmoil. +Messrs. Hand, Schryhart, Merrill, and Arneel were personally +interested! What would you? As early as seven-thirty there was a +pattering of horses' hoofs and a jingle of harness, as splendid +open carriages were drawn up in front of various exclusive mansions +and a bank president, or a director at least, issued forth at the +call of one of the big quadrumvirate to journey to the home of Mr. +Arneel. Such interesting figures as Samuel Blackman, once president +of the old Chicago Gas Company, and now a director of the Prairie +National; Hudson Baker, once president of the West Chicago Gas +Company, and now a director of the Chicago Central National; Ormonde +Ricketts, publisher of the Chronicle and director of the Third +National; Norrie Simms, president of the Douglas Trust Company; +Walter Rysam Cotton, once an active wholesale coffee-broker, but +now a director principally of various institutions, were all en +route. It was a procession of solemn, superior, thoughtful +gentlemen, and all desirous of giving the right appearance and of +making the correct impression. For, be it known, of all men none +are so proud or vainglorious over the minor trappings of materialism +as those who have but newly achieved them. It is so essential +apparently to fulfil in manner and air, if not in fact, the principle +of "presence" which befits the role of conservator of society and +leader of wealth. Every one of those named and many more--to the +number of thirty--rode thus loftily forth in the hot, dry evening +air and were soon at the door of the large and comfortable home +of Mr. Timothy Arneel. + +That important personage was not as yet present to receive his +guests, and neither were Messrs. Schryhart, Hand, nor Merrill. +It would not be fitting for such eminent potentates to receive +their underlings in person on such an occasion. At the hour +appointed these four were still in their respective offices, +perfecting separately the details of the plan upon which they had +agreed and which, with a show of informality and of momentary +inspiration, they would later present. For the time being their +guests had to make the best of their absence. Drinks and liquors +were served, but these were of small comfort. A rack provided for +straw hats was for some reason not used, every one preferring to +retain his own head-gear. Against the background of wood panneling +and the chairs covered with summer linen the company presented a +galleryesque variety and interest. Messrs. Hull and Stackpole, the +corpses or victims over which this serious gathering were about +to sit in state, were not actually present within the room, though +they were within call in another part of the house, where, if +necessary, they could be reached and their advice or explanations +heard. This presumably brilliant assemblage of the financial +weight and intelligence of the city appeared as solemn as owls +under the pressure of a rumored impending financial crisis. Before +Arneel's appearance there was a perfect buzz of minor financial +gossip, such as: + +"You don't say?" + +"Is it as serious as that ?" + +"I knew things were pretty shaky, but I was by no means certain +how shaky." + +"Fortunately, we are not carrying much of that stock." (This from +one of the few really happy bankers.) + +"This is a rather serious occasion, isn't it?" + +"You don't tell me!" + +"Dear, dear!" + +Never a word in criticism from any source of either Hand or Schryhart +or Arneel or Merrill, though the fact that they were back of the +pool was well known. Somehow they were looked upon as benefactors +who were calling this conference with a view of saving others from +disaster rather than for the purpose of assisting themselves. +Such phrases as, "Oh, Mr. Hand! Marvelous man! Marvelous!" or, +"Mr. Schryhart--very able--very able indeed!" or, "You may depend +on it these men are not going to allow anything serious to overtake +the affairs of the city at this time," were heard on every hand. +The fact that immense quantities of cash or paper were involved +in behalf of one or other of these four was secretly admitted by +one banker to another. No rumor that Cowperwood or his friends +had been profiting or were in any way involved had come to any one +present--not as yet. + +At eight-thirty exactly Mr. Arneel first ambled in quite informally, +Hand, Schryhart, and Merrill appearing separately very shortly +after. Rubbing their hands and mopping their faces with their +handkerchiefs, they looked about them, making an attempt to appear +as nonchalant and cheerful as possible under such trying circumstances. +There were many old acquaintances and friends to greet, inquiries +to be made as to the health of wives and children. Mr. Arneel, +clad in yellowish linen, with a white silk shirt of lavender stripe, +and carrying a palm-leaf fan, seemed quite refreshed; his fine +expanse of neck and bosom looked most paternal, and even Abrahamesque. +His round, glistening pate exuded beads of moisture. Mr. Schryhart, +on the contrary, for all the heat, appeared quite hard and solid, +as though he might be carved out of some dark wood. Mr. Hand, +much of Mr. Arneel's type, but more solid and apparently more +vigorous, had donned for the occasion a blue serge coat with +trousers of an almost gaudy, bright stripe. His ruddy, archaic +face was at once encouraging and serious, as though he were saying, +"My dear children, this is very trying, but we will do the best +we can." Mr. Merrill was as cool and ornate and lazy as it was +possible for a great merchant to be. To one person and another +he extended a cool, soft hand, nodding and smiling half the time +in silence. To Mr. Arneel as the foremost citizen and the one of +largest wealth fell the duty (by all agreed as most appropriate) +of assuming the chair--which in this case was an especially large +one at the head of the table. + +There was a slight stir as he finally, at the suggestion of +Schryhart, went forward and sat down. The other great men found +seats. + +"Well, gentlemen," began Mr. Arneel, dryly (he had a low, husky +voice), "I'll be as brief as I can. This is a very unusual occasion +which brings us together. I suppose you all know how it is with +Mr. Hull and Mr. Stackpole. American Match is likely to come down +with a crash in the morning if something very radical isn't done +to-night. It is at the suggestion of a number of men and banks +that this meeting is called." + +Mr. Arneel had an informal, tete-a-tete way of speaking as if he +were sitting on a chaise-longue with one other person. + +"The failure," he went on, firmly, "if it comes, as I hope it +won't, will make a lot of trouble for a number of banks and private +individuals which we would like to avoid, I am sure. The principal +creditors of American Match are our local banks and some private +individuals who have loaned money on the stock. I have a list of +them here, along with the amounts for which they are responsible. +It is in the neighborhood of ten millions of dollars." + +Mr. Arneel, with the unconscious arrogance of wealth and power, +did not trouble to explain how he got the list, neither did he +show the slightest perturbation. He merely fished down in one +pocket in a heavy way and produced it, spreading it out on the +table before him. The company wondered whose names and what amounts +were down, and whether it was his intention to read it. + +"Now," resumed Mr. Arneel, seriously, "I want to say here that Mr. +Stackpole, Mr. Merrill, Mr. Hand, and myself have been to a certain +extent investors in this stock, and up to this afternoon we felt +it to be our duty, not so much to ourselves as to the various banks +which have accepted this stock as collateral and to the city at +large, to sustain it as much as possible. We believed in Mr. Hull +and Mr. Stackpole. We might have gone still further if there had +been any hope that a number of others could carry the stock without +seriously injuring themselves; but in view of recent developments +we know that this can't be done. For some time Mr. Hull and Mr. +Stackpole and the various bank officers have had reason to think +that some one has been cutting the ground from under them, and now +they know it. It is because of this, and because only concerted +action on the part of banks and individuals can save the financial +credit of the city at this time, that this meeting is called. +Stocks are going to continue to be thrown on the market. It is +possible that Hull & Stackpole may have to liquidate in some way. +One thing is certain: unless a large sum of money is gathered to +meet the claim against them in the morning, they will fail. The +trouble is due indirectly, of course, to this silver agitation; +but it is due a great deal more, we believe, to a piece of local +sharp dealing which has just come to light, and which has really +been the cause of putting the financial community in the tight place +where it stands to-night. I might as well speak plainly as to +this matter. It is the work of one man--Mr. Cowperwood. American +Match might have pulled through and the city been have spared +the danger which now confronts it if Mr. Hull and Mr. Stackpole +had not made the mistake of going to this man." + +Mr. Arneel paused, and Mr. Norrie Simms, more excitable than most +by temperament, chose to exclaim, bitterly: "The wrecker!" A stir +of interest passed over the others accompanied by murmurs of +disapproval. + +"The moment he got the stock in his hands as collateral," continued +Mr. Arneel, solemnly, "and in the face of an agreement not to throw +a share on the market, he has been unloading steadily. That is +what has been happening yesterday and to-day. Over fifteen thousand +shares of this stock, which cannot very well be traced to outside +sources, have been thrown on the market, and we have every reason +to believe that all of it comes from the same place. The result +is that American Match, and Mr. Hull and Mr. Stackpole, are on the +verge of collapse." + +"The scoundrel!" repeated Mr. Norrie Simms, bitterly, almost rising +to his feet. The Douglas Trust Company was heavily interested in +American Match. + +"What an outrage!" commented Mr. Lawrence, of the Prairie National, +which stood to lose at least three hundred thousand dollars in +shrinkage of values on hypothecated stock alone. To this bank +that Cowperwood owed at least three hundred thousand dollars on +call. + +"Depend on it to find his devil's hoof in it somewhere," observed +Jordan Jules, who had never been able to make any satisfactory +progress in his fight on Cowperwood in connection with the city +council and the development of the Chicago General Company. The +Chicago Central, of which he was now a director, was one of the +banks from which Cowperwood had judiciously borrowed. + +"It's a pity he should be allowed to go on bedeviling the town in +this fashion," observed Mr. Sunderland Sledd to his neighbor, Mr. +Duane Kingsland, who was a director in a bank controlled by Mr. +Hand. + +The latter, as well as Schryhart, observed with satisfaction the +effect of Mr. Arneel's words on the company. + +Mr. Arneel now again fished in his pocket laboriously, and drew +forth a second slip of paper which he spread out before him. "This +is a time when frankness must prevail," he went on, solemnly, "if +anything is to be done, and I am in hopes that we can do something. +I have here a memorandum of some of the loans which the local +banks have made to Mr. Cowperwood and which are still standing on +their books. I want to know if there are any further loans of +which any of you happen to know and which you are willing to mention +at this time." + +He looked solemnly around. + +Immediately several loans were mentioned by Mr. Cotton and Mr. +Osgood which had not been heard of previously. The company was +now very well aware, in a general way, of what was coming. + +"Well, gentlemen," continued Mr. Arneel, "I have, previous to this +meeting, consulted with a number of our leading men. They agree +with me that, since so many banks are in need of funds to carry +this situation, and since there is no particular obligation on +anybody's part to look after the interests of Mr. Cowperwood, it +might be just as well if these loans of his, which are outstanding, +were called and the money used to aid the banks and the men who +have been behind Mr. Hull and Mr. Stackpole. I have no personal +feeling against Mr. Cowperwood--that is, he has never done me any +direct injury--but naturally I cannot approve of the course he has +seen fit to take in this case. Now, if there isn't money available +from some source to enable you gentlemen to turn around, there +will be a number of other failures. Runs may be started on a +half-dozen banks. Time is the essence of a situation like this, +and we haven't any time." + +Mr. Arneel paused and looked around. A slight buzz of conversation +sprang up, mostly bitter and destructive criticism of Cowperwood. + +"It would be only just if he could be made to pay for this," +commented Mr. Blackman to Mr. Sledd. "He has been allowed to play +fast and loose long enough. It is time some one called a halt on +him." + +"Well, it looks to me as though it would be done tonight," Mr. +Sledd returned. + +Meanwhile Mr. Schryhart was again rising to his feet. "I think," +he was saying, "if there is no objection on any one's part, Mr. +Arneel, as chairman, might call for a formal expression of opinion +from the different gentlemen present which will be on record as +the sense of this meeting." + +At this point Mr. Kingsland, a tall, whiskered gentleman, arose +to inquire exactly how it came that Cowperwood had secured these +stocks, and whether those present were absolutely sure that the +stock has been coming from him or from his friends. "I would not +like to think we were doing any man an injustice," he concluded. + +In reply to this Mr. Schryhart called in Mr. Stackpole to corroborate +him. Some of the stocks had been positively identified. Stackpole +related the full story, which somehow seemed to electrify the +company, so intense was the feeling against Cowperwood. + +"It is amazing that men should be permitted to do things like this +and still hold up their heads in the business world," said one, +Mr. Vasto, president of the Third National, to his neighbor. + +"I should think there would be no difficulty in securing united +action in a case of this kind," said Mr. Lawrence, president of +the Prairie National, who was very much beholden to Hand for past +and present favors. + +"Here is a case," put in Schryhart, who was merely waiting for an +opportunity to explain further, "in which an unexpected political +situation develops an unexpected crisis, and this man uses it for +his personal aggrandizement and to the detriment of every other +person. The welfare of the city is nothing to him. The stability +of the very banks he borrows from is nothing. He is a pariah, and +if this opportunity to show him what we think of him and his +methods is not used we will be doing less than our duty to the +city and to one another." + +"Gentlemen," said Mr. Arneel, finally, after Cowperwood's different +loans had been carefully tabulated, "don't you think it would be +wise to send for Mr. Cowperwood and state to him directly the +decision we have reached and the reasons for it? I presume all of +us would agree that he should be notified." + +"I think he should be notified," said Mr. Merrill, who saw behind +this smooth talk the iron club that was being brandished. + +Both Hand and Schryhart looked at each other and Arneel while they +politely waited for some one else to make a suggestion. When no +one ventured, Hand, who was hoping this would prove a ripping blow +to Cowperwood, remarked, viciously: + +"He might as well be told--if we can reach him. It's sufficient +notice, in my judgment. He might as well understand that this is +the united action of the leading financial forces of the city." + +"Quite so," added Mr. Schryhart. "It is time he understood, I +think, what the moneyed men of this community think of him and his +crooked ways. + +A murmur of approval ran around the room. + +"Very well," said Mr. Arneel. "Anson, you know him better than +some of the rest of us. Perhaps you had better see if you can get +him on the telephone and ask him to call. Tell him that we are +here in executive session." + +"I think he might take it more seriously if you spoke to him, +Timothy," replied Merrill. + +Arneel, being always a man of action, arose and left the room, +seeking a telephone which was located in a small workroom or office +den on the same floor, where he could talk without fear of being +overheard. + +Sitting in his library on this particular evening, and studying +the details of half a dozen art-catalogues which had accumulated +during the week, Cowperwood was decidedly conscious of the probable +collapse of American Match on the morrow. Through his brokers and +agents he was well aware that a conference was on at this hour at +the house of Arneel. More than once during the day he had seen +bankers and brokers who were anxious about possible shrinkage in +connection with various hypothecated securities, and to-night his +valet had called him to the 'phone half a dozen times to talk with +Addison, with Kaffrath, with a broker by the name of Prosser who +had succeeded Laughlin in active control of his private speculations, +and also, be it said, with several of the banks whose presidents +were at this particular conference. If Cowperwood was hated, +mistrusted, or feared by the overlords of these institutions, such +was by no means the case with the underlings, some of whom, through +being merely civil, were hopeful of securing material benefits +from him at some future time. With a feeling of amused satisfaction +he was meditating upon how heavily and neatly he had countered on +his enemies. Whereas they were speculating as to how to offset +their heavy losses on the morrow, he was congratulating himself +on corresponding gains. When all his deals should be closed up +he would clear within the neighborhood of a million dollars. He +did not feel that he had worked Messrs. Hull and Stackpole any +great injustice. They were at their wit's end. If he had not +seized this opportunity to undercut them Schryhart or Arneel would +have done so, anyhow. + +Mingled with thoughts of a forthcoming financial triumph were +others of Berenice Fleming. There are such things as figments of +the brain, even in the heads of colossi. He thought of Berenice +early and late; he even dreamed of her. He laughed at himself at +times for thus being taken in the toils of a mere girl--the strands +of her ruddy hair--but working in Chicago these days he was always +conscious of her, of what she was doing, of where she was going +in the East, of how happy he would be if they were only together, +happily mated. + +It had so happened, unfortunately, that in the course of this +summer's stay at Narragansett Berenice, among other diversions, +had assumed a certain interest in one Lieutenant Lawrence Braxmar, +U.S.N., whom she found loitering there, and who was then connected +with the naval station at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Cowperwood, +coming East at this time for a few days' stay in order to catch +another glimpse of his ideal, had been keenly disturbed by the +sight of Braxmar and by what his presence might signify. Up to +this time he had not given much thought to younger men in connection +with her. Engrossed in her personality, he could think of nothing +as being able to stand long between him and the fulfilment of his +dreams. Berenice must be his. That radiant spirit, enwrapt in +so fair an outward seeming, must come to see and rejoice in him. +Yet she was so young and airy in her mood that he sometimes +wondered. How was he to draw near? What say exactly? What do? +Berenice was in no way hypnotized by either his wealth or fame. +She was accustomed (she little knew to what extent by his courtesy) +to a world more resplendent in its social security than his own. +Surveying Braxmar keenly upon their first meeting, Cowperwood had +liked his face and intelligence, had judged him to be able, but +had wondered instantly how he could get rid of him. Viewing +Berenice and the Lieutenant as they strolled off together along a +summery seaside veranda, he had been for once lonely, and had +sighed. These uncertain phases of affection could become very +trying at times. He wished he were young again, single. + +To-night, therefore, this thought was haunting him like a gloomy +undertone, when at half past eleven the telephone rang once more, +and he heard a low, even voice which said: + +"Mr. Cowperwood? This is Mr. Arneel." + +"Yes." + +"A number of the principal financial men of the city are gathered +here at my house this evening. The question of ways and means of +preventing a panic to-morrow is up for discussion. As you probably +know, Hull & Stackpole are in trouble. Unless something is done +for them tonight they will certainly fail to-morrow for twenty +million dollars. It isn't so much their failure that we are +considering as it is the effect on stocks in general, and on the +banks. As I understand it, a number of your loans are involved. +The gentlemen here have suggested that I call you up and ask you +to come here, if you will, to help us decide what ought to be done. +Something very drastic will have to be decided on before morning." + +During this speech Cowperwood's brain had been reciprocating like +a well-oiled machine. + +"My loans?" he inquired, suavely. "What have they to do with the +situation? I don't owe Hull & Stackpole anything." + +"Very true. But a number of the banks are carrying securities for +you. The idea is that a number of these will have to be called +--the majority of them--unless some other way can be devised +to-night. We thought you might possibly wish to come and talk it +over, and that you might be able to suggest some other way out." + +"I see," replied Cowperwood, caustically. "The idea is to sacrifice +me in order to save Hull & Stackpole. Is that it?" + +His eyes, quite as though Arneel were before him, emitted malicious +sparks. + +"Well, not precisely that," replied Arneel, conservatively; "but +something will have to be done. Don't you think you had better +come over?" + +"Very good. I'll come," was the cheerful reply. "It isn't anything +that can be discussed over the 'phone, anyhow." + +He hung up the receiver and called for his runabout. On the way +over he thanked the prevision which had caused him, in anticipation +of some such attack as this, to set aside in the safety vaults of +the Chicago Trust Company several millions in low-interest-bearing +government bonds. Now, if worst came to worst, these could be +drawn on and hypothecated. These men should see at last how +powerful he was and how secure. + +As he entered the home of Arneel he was a picturesque and truly +representative figure of his day. In a light summer suit of cream +and gray twill, with a straw hat ornamented by a blue-and-white +band, and wearing yellow quarter-shoes of the softest leather, he +appeared a very model of trig, well-groomed self-sufficiency. As +he was ushered into the room he gazed about him in a brave, leonine +way. + +"A fine night for a conference, gentlemen," he said, walking toward +a chair indicated by Mr. Arneel. "I must say I never saw so many +straw hats at a funeral before. I understand that my obsequies +are contemplated. What can I do?" + +He beamed in a genial, sufficient way, which in any one else would +have brought a smile to the faces of the company. In him it was +an implication of basic power which secretly enraged and envenomed +nearly all those present. They merely stirred in a nervous and +wholly antagonistic way. A number of those who knew him personally +nodded--Merrill, Lawrence, Simms; but there was no friendly light +in their eyes. + +"Well, gentlemen?" he inquired, after a moment or two of ominous +silence, observing Hand's averted face and Schryhart's eyes, which +were lifted ceilingward. + +"Mr. Cowperwood," began Mr. Arneel, quietly, in no way disturbed +by Cowperwood's jaunty air, "as I told you over the 'phone, this +meeting is called to avert, if possible, what is likely to be a +very serious panic in the morning. Hull & Stackpole are on the +verge of failure. The outstanding loans are considerable--in the +neighborhood of seven or eight million here in Chicago. On the +other hand, there are assets in the shape of American Match stocks +and other properties sufficient to carry them for a while longer +if the banks can only continue their loans. As you know, we are +all facing a falling market, and the banks are short of ready +money. Something has to be done. We have canvassed the situation +here to-night as thoroughly as possible, and the general conclusion +is that your loans are among the most available assets which can +be reached quickly. Mr. Schryhart, Mr. Merrill, Mr. Hand, and +myself have done all we can thus far to avert a calamity, but we +find that some one with whom Hull & Stackpole have been hypothecating +stocks has been feeding them out in order to break the market. +We shall know how to avoid that in the future" (and he looked hard +at Cowperwood), "but the thing at present is immediate cash, and +your loans are the largest and the most available. Do you think +you can find the means to pay them back in the morning?" + +Arneel blinked his keen, blue eyes solemnly, while the rest, like +a pack of genial but hungry wolves, sat and surveyed this apparently +whole but now condemned scapegoat and victim. Cowperwood, who was +keenly alive to the spirit of the company, looked blandly and +fearlessly around. On his knee he held his blue--banded straw hat +neatly balanced on one edge. His full mustache curled upward in +a jaunty, arrogant way. + +"I can meet my loans," he replied, easily. "But I would not advise +you or any of the gentlemen present to call them." His voice, for +all its lightness, had an ominous ring. + +"Why not?" inquired Hand, grimly and heavily, turning squarely +about and facing him. "It doesn't appear that you have extended +any particular courtesy to Hull or Stackpole." His face was red +and scowling. + +"Because," replied Cowperwood, smiling, and ignoring the reference +to his trick, "I know why this meeting was called. I know that +these gentlemen here, who are not saying a word, are mere catspaws +and rubber stamps for you and Mr. Schryhart and Mr. Arneel and Mr. +Merrill. I know how you four gentlemen have been gambling in this +stock, and what your probable losses are, and that it is to save +yourselves from further loss that you have decided to make me the +scapegoat. I want to tell you here"--and he got up, so that in +his full stature he loomed over the room--"you can't do it. You +can't make me your catspaw to pull your chestnuts out of the fire, +and no rubber-stamp conference can make any such attempt successful. +If you want to know what to do, I'll tell you--close the Chicago +Stock Exchange to-morrow morning and keep it closed. Then let +Hull & Stackpole fail, or if not you four put up the money to carry +them. If you can't, let your banks do it. If you open the day +by calling a single one of my loans before I am ready to pay it, +I'll gut every bank from here to the river. You'll have panic, +all the panic you want. Good evening, gentlemen." + +He drew out his watch, glanced at it, and quickly walked to the +door, putting on his hat as he went. As he bustled jauntily down +the wide interior staircase, preceded by a footman to open the +door, a murmur of dissatisfaction arose in the room he had just +left. + +"The wrecker!" re-exclaimed Norrie Simms, angrily, astounded at +this demonstration of defiance. + +"The scoundrel!" declared Mr. Blackman. "Where does he get the +wealth to talk like that?" + +"Gentlemen," said Mr. Arneel, stung to the quick by this amazing +effrontery, and yet made cautious by the blazing wrath of Cowperwood, +"it is useless to debate this question in anger. Mr. Cowperwood +evidently refers to loans which can be controlled in his favor, +and of which I for one know nothing. I do not see what can be +done until we do know. Perhaps some of you can tell us what they +are. + +But no one could, and after due calculation advice was borrowed +of caution. The loans of Frank Algernon Cowperwood were not +called. + + + + +Chapter L + + + +A New York Mansion + +The failure of American Match the next morning was one of those +events that stirred the city and the nation and lingered in the +minds of men for years. At the last moment it was decided that +in lieu of calling Cowperwood's loans Hull & Stackpole had best +be sacrificed, the stock-exchange closed, and all trading ended. +This protected stocks from at least a quotable decline and left +the banks free for several days (ten all told) in which to repair +their disrupted finances and buttress themselves against the +eventual facts. Naturally, the minor speculators throughout the +city--those who had expected to make a fortune out of this crash +--raged and complained, but, being faced by an adamantine exchange +directorate, a subservient press, and the alliance between the big +bankers and the heavy quadrumvirate, there was nothing to be done. +The respective bank presidents talked solemnly of "a mere temporary +flurry," Hand, Schryhart, Merrill, and Arneel went still further +into their pockets to protect their interests, and Cowperwood, +triumphant, was roundly denounced by the smaller fry as a "bucaneer," +a "pirate," a "wolf"--indeed, any opprobrious term that came into +their minds. The larger men faced squarely the fact that here was +an enemy worthy of their steel. Would he master them? Was he +already the dominant money power in Chicago? Could he thus flaunt +their helplessness and his superiority in their eyes and before +their underlings and go unwhipped? + +"I must give in!" Hosmer Hand had declared to Arneel and Schryhart, +at the close of the Arneel house conference and as they stood in +consultation after the others had departed. "We seem to be beaten +to-night, but I, for one, am not through yet. He has won to-night, +but he won't win always. This is a fight to a finish between me +and him. The rest of you can stay in or drop out, just as you wish." + +"Hear, hear!" exclaimed Schryhart, laying a fervently sympathetic +hand on his shoulder. "Every dollar that I have is at your service, +Hosmer. This fellow can't win eventually. I'm with you to the end." + +Arneel, walking with Merrill and the others to the door, was silent +and dour. He had been cavalierly affronted by a man who, but a +few short years before, he would have considered a mere underling. +Here was Cowperwood bearding the lion in his den, dictating terms +to the principal financial figures of the city, standing up trig +and resolute, smiling in their faces and telling them in so many +words to go to the devil. Mr. Arneel glowered under lowering +brows, but what could he do? "We must see," he said to the others, +"what time will bring. Just now there is nothing much to do. +This crisis has been too sudden. You say you are not through with +him, Hosmer, and neither am I. But we must wait. We shall have +to break him politically in this city, and I am confident that in +the end we can do it." The others were grateful for his courage +even though to-morrow he and they must part with millions to protect +themselves and the banks. For the first time Merrill concluded +that he would have to fight Cowperwood openly from now on, though +even yet he admired his courage. "But he is too defiant, too +cavalier! A very lion of a man," he said to himself. "A man with +the heart of a Numidian lion." + +It was true. + +From this day on for a little while, and because there was no +immediate political contest in sight, there was comparative peace +in Chicago, although it more resembled an armed camp operating +under the terms of some agreed neutrality than it did anything +else. Schryhart, Hand, Arneel, and Merrill were quietly watchful. +Cowperwood's chief concern was lest his enemies might succeed in +their project of worsting him politically in one or all three of +the succeeding elections which were due to occur every two years +between now and 1903, at which time his franchises would have to +be renewed. As in the past they had made it necessary for him to +work against them through bribery and perjury, so in ensuing +struggles they might render it more and more difficult for him or +his agents to suborn the men elected to office. The subservient +and venal councilmen whom he now controlled might be replaced by +men who, if no more honest, would be more loyal to the enemy, thus +blocking the extension of his franchises. Yet upon a renewal +period of at least twenty and preferably fifty years depended the +fulfilment of all the colossal things he had begun--his art-collection, +his new mansion, his growing prestige as a financier, his +rehabilitation socially, and the celebration of his triumph by a +union, morganatic or otherwise, with some one who would be worthy +to share his throne. + +It is curious how that first and most potent tendency of the human +mind, ambition, becomes finally dominating. Here was Cowperwood +at fifty-seven, rich beyond the wildest dream of the average man, +celebrated in a local and in some respects in a national way, who +was nevertheless feeling that by no means had his true aims been +achieved. He was not yet all-powerful as were divers Eastern +magnates, or even these four or five magnificently moneyed men +here in Chicago who, by plodding thought and labor in many dreary +fields such as Cowperwood himself frequently scorned, had reaped +tremendous and uncontended profits. How was it, he asked himself, +that his path had almost constantly been strewn with stormy +opposition and threatened calamity? Was it due to his private +immorality? Other men were immoral; the mass, despite religious +dogma and fol-de-rol theory imposed from the top, was generally +so. Was it not rather due to his inability to control without +dominating personally--without standing out fully and clearly in +the sight of all men? Sometimes he thought so. The humdrum +conventional world could not brook his daring, his insouciance, +his constant desire to call a spade a spade. His genial sufficiency +was a taunt and a mockery to many. The hard implication of his +eye was dreaded by the weaker as fire is feared by a burnt child. +Dissembling enough, he was not sufficiently oily and make-believe. + +Well, come what might, he did not need to be or mean to be so, and +there the game must lie; but he had not by any means attained the +height of his ambition. He was not yet looked upon as a money +prince. He could not rank as yet with the magnates of the East +--the serried Sequoias of Wall Street. Until he could stand with +these men, until he could have a magnificent mansion, acknowledged +as such by all, until he could have a world-famous gallery, Berenice, +millions--what did it avail? + +The character of Cowperwood's New York house, which proved one of +the central achievements of his later years, was one of those +flowerings--out of disposition which eventuate in the case of men +quite as in that of plants. After the passing of the years neither +a modified Gothic (such as his Philadelphia house had been), nor +a conventionalized Norman-French, after the style of his Michigan +Avenue home, seemed suitable to him. Only the Italian palaces of +medieval or Renaissance origin which he had seen abroad now appealed +to him as examples of what a stately residence should be. He was +really seeking something which should not only reflect his private +tastes as to a home, but should have the more enduring qualities +of a palace or even a museum, which might stand as a monument to +his memory. After much searching Cowperwood had found an architect +in New York who suited him entirely--one Raymond Pyne, rake, +raconteur, man-about-town--who was still first and foremost an +artist, with an eye for the exceptional and the perfect. These +two spent days and days together meditating on the details of this +home museum. An immense gallery was to occupy the west wing of +the house and be devoted to pictures; a second gallery should +occupy the south wing and be given over to sculpture and large +whorls of art; and these two wings were to swing as an L around +the house proper, the latter standing in the angle between them. +The whole structure was to be of a rich brownstone, heavily carved. +For its interior decoration the richest woods, silks, tapestries, +glass, and marbles were canvassed. The main rooms were to surround +a great central court with a colonnade of pink-veined alabaster, +and in the center there would be an electrically lighted fountain +of alabaster and silver. Occupying the east wall a series of +hanging baskets of orchids, or of other fresh flowers, were to +give a splendid glow of color, a morning-sun effect, to this richly +artificial realm. One chamber--a lounge on the second floor--was +to be entirely lined with thin-cut transparent marble of a peach-blow +hue, the lighting coming only through these walls and from without. +Here in a perpetual atmosphere of sunrise were to be racks for +exotic birds, a trellis of vines, stone benches, a central pool +of glistening water, and an echo of music. Pyne assured him that +after his death this room would make an excellent chamber in which +to exhibit porcelains, jades, ivories, and other small objects of +value. + +Cowperwood was now actually transferring his possessions to New +York, and had persuaded Aileen to accompany him. Fine compound +of tact and chicane that he was, he had the effrontery to assure +her that they could here create a happier social life. His present +plan was to pretend a marital contentment which had no basis solely +in order to make this transition period as undisturbed as possible. +Subsequently he might get a divorce, or he might make an arrangement +whereby his life would be rendered happy outside the social pale. + +Of all this Berenice Fleming knew nothing at all. At the same +time the building of this splendid mansion eventually awakened her +to an understanding of the spirit of art that occupied the center +of Cowperwood's iron personality and caused her to take a real +interest in him. Before this she had looked on him as a kind of +Western interloper coming East and taking advantage of her mother's +good nature to scrape a little social courtesy. Now, however, all +that Mrs. Carter had been telling her of his personality and +achievements was becoming crystallized into a glittering chain of +facts. This house, the papers were fond of repeating, would be a +jewel of rare workmanship. Obviously the Cowperwoods were going +to try to enter society. "What a pity it is," Mrs. Carter once +said to Berenice, "that he couldn't have gotten a divorce from his +wife before he began all this. I am so afraid they will never be +received. He would be if he only had the right woman; but she--" +Mrs. Carter, who had once seen Aileen in Chicago, shook her head +doubtfully. "She is not the type," was her comment. "She has +neither the air nor the understanding." + +"If he is so unhappy with her," observed Berenice, thoughtfully, +"why doesn't he leave her? She can be happy without him. It is +so silly--this cat-and-dog existence. Still I suppose she values +the position he gives her," she added, "since she isn't so interesting +herself." + +"I suppose," said Mrs. Carter, "that he married her twenty years +ago, when he was a very different man from what he is to-day. She +is not exactly coarse, but not clever enough. She cannot do what +he would like to see done. I hate to see mismatings of this kind, +and yet they are so common. I do hope, Bevy, that when you marry +it will be some one with whom you can get along, though I do believe +I would rather see you unhappy than poor." + +This was delivered as an early breakfast peroration in Central +Park South, with the morning sun glittering on one of the nearest +park lakes. Bevy, in spring-green and old-gold, was studying the +social notes in one of the morning papers. + +"I think I should prefer to be unhappy with wealth than to be +without it," she said, idly, without looking up. + +Her mother surveyed her admiringly, conscious of her imperious +mood. What was to become of her? Would she marry well? Would she +marry in time? Thus far no breath of the wretched days in Louisville +had affected Berenice. Most of those with whom Mrs. Carter had +found herself compelled to deal would be kind enough to keep her +secret. But there were others. How near she had been to drifting +on the rocks when Cowperwood had appeared! + +"After all," observed Berenice, thoughtfully, "Mr. Cowperwood isn't +a mere money-grabber, is he? So many of these Western moneyed men +are so dull." + +"My dear," exclaimed Mrs. Carter, who by now had become a confirmed +satellite of her secret protector, "you don't understand him at +all. He is a very astonishing man, I tell you. The world is +certain to hear a lot more of Frank Cowperwood before he dies. +You can say what you please, but some one has to make the money +in the first place. It's little enough that good breeding does +for you in poverty. I know, because I've seen plenty of our friends +come down." + +In the new house, on a scaffold one day, a famous sculptor and his +assistants were at work on a Greek frieze which represented dancing +nymphs linked together by looped wreaths. Berenice and her mother +happened to be passing. They stopped to look, and Cowperwood +joined them. He waved his hand at the figures of the frieze, and +said to Berenice, with his old, gay air, "If they had copied you +they would have done better." + +"How charming of you!" she replied, with her cool, strange, blue +eyes fixed on him. "They are beautiful." In spite of her earlier +prejudices she knew now that he and she had one god in common--Art; +and that his mind was fixed on things beautiful as on a shrine. + +He merely looked at her. + +"This house can be little more than a museum to me, he remarked, +simply, when her mother was out of hearing; "but I shall build it +as perfectly as I can. Perhaps others may enjoy it if I do not." + +She looked at him musingly, understandingly, and he smiled. She +realized, of course, that he was trying to convey to her that he +was lonely. + + + + +Chapter LI + + + +The Revival of Hattie Starr + +Engrossed in the pleasures and entertainments which Cowperwood's +money was providing, Berenice had until recently given very little +thought to her future. Cowperwood had been most liberal. "She +is young," he once said to Mrs. Carter, with an air of disinterested +liberality, when they were talking about Berenice and her future. +"She is an exquisite. Let her have her day. If she marries well +she can pay you back, or me. But give her all she needs now." And +he signed checks with the air of a gardener who is growing a +wondrous orchid. + +The truth was that Mrs. Carter had become so fond of Berenice as +an object of beauty, a prospective grande dame, that she would +have sold her soul to see her well placed; and as the money to +provide the dresses, setting, equipage had to come from somewhere, +she had placed her spirit in subjection to Cowperwood and pretended +not to see the compromising position in which she was placing all +that was near and dear to her. + +"Oh, you're so good," she more than once said to him a mist of +gratitude commingled with joy in her eyes. "I would never have +believed it of any one. But Bevy--" + +"An esthete is an esthete," Cowperwood replied. "They are rare +enough. I like to see a spirit as fine as hers move untroubled. +She will make her way." + +Seeing Lieutenant Braxmar in the foreground of Berenice's affairs, +Mrs. Carter was foolish enough to harp on the matter in a friendly, +ingratiating way. Braxmar was really interesting after his fashion. +He was young, tall, muscular, and handsome, a graceful dancer; +but, better yet, he represented in his moods lineage, social +position, a number of the things which engaged Berenice most. He +was intelligent, serious, with a kind of social grace which was +gay, courteous, wistful. Berenice met him first at a local dance, +where a new step was being practised--"dancing in the barn," as +it was called--and so airily did he tread it with her in his +handsome uniform that she was half smitten for the moment. + +"You dance delightfully," she said. "Is this a part of your life +on the ocean wave?" + +"Deep-sea-going dancing," he replied, with a heavenly smile. "All +battles are accompanied by balls, don't you know?" + +"Oh, what a wretched jest!" she replied. "It's unbelievably bad." + +"Not for me. I can make much worse ones." + +"Not for me," she replied, "I can't stand them." And they went +prancing on. Afterward he came and sat by her; they walked in the +moonlight, he told her of naval life, his Southern home and +connections. + +Mrs. Carter, seeing him with Berenice, and having been introduced, +observed the next morning, "I like your Lieutenant, Bevy. I know +some of his relatives well. They come from the Carolinas. He's +sure to come into money. The whole family is wealthy. Do you +think he might be interested in you?" + +"Oh, possibly--yes, I presume so," replied Berenice, airily, for +she did not take too kindly to this evidence of parental interest. +She preferred to see life drift on in some nebulous way at present, +and this was bringing matters too close to home. "Still, he has +so much machinery on his mind I doubt whether he could take any +serious interest in a woman. He is almost more of a battle-ship +than he is a man." + +She made a mouth, and Mrs. Carter commented gaily: "You rogue! All +the men take an interest in you. You don't think you could care +for him, then, at all?" + +"Why, mother, what a question! Why do you ask? Is it so essential +that I should?" + +"Oh, not that exactly," replied Mrs. Carter, sweetly, bracing +herself for a word which she felt incumbent upon her; "but think +of his position. He comes of such a good family, and he must be +heir to a considerable fortune in his own right. Oh, Bevy, I +don't want to hurry or spoil your life in any way, but do keep in +mind the future. With your tastes and instincts money is so +essential, and unless you marry it I don't know where you are to +get it. Your father was so thoughtless, and Rolfe's was even worse. + +She sighed. + +Berenice, for almost the first time in her life, took solemn heed +of this thought. She pondered whether she could endure Braxmar +as a life partner, follow him around the world, perhaps retransferring +her abode to the South; but she could not make up her mind. This +suggestion on the part of her mother rather poisoned the cup for +her. To tell the truth, in this hour of doubt her thoughts turned +vaguely to Cowperwood as one who represented in his avid way more +of the things she truly desired. She remembered his wealth, his +plaint that his new house could be only a museum, the manner in +which he approached her with looks and voiceless suggestions. But +he was old and married--out of the question, therefore--and Braxmar +was young and charming. To think her mother should have been so +tactless as to suggest the necessity for consideration in his case! +It almost spoiled him for her. And was their financial state, +then, as uncertain as her mother indicated? + +In this crisis some of her previous social experiences became +significant. For instance, only a few weeks previous to her meeting +with Braxmar she had been visiting at the country estate of the +Corscaden Batjers, at Redding Hills, Long Island, and had been +sitting with her hostess in the morning room of Hillcrest, which +commanded a lovely though distant view of Long Island Sound. + +Mrs. Fredericka Batjer was a chestnut blonde, fair, cool, quiescent +--a type out of Dutch art. Clad in a morning gown of gray and +silver, her hair piled in a Psyche knot, she had in her lap on +this occasion a Java basket filled with some attempt at Norwegian +needlework. + +"Bevy," she said, "you remember Kilmer Duelma, don't you? Wasn't +he at the Haggertys' last summer when you were there?" + +Berenice, who was seated at a small Chippendale writing-desk +penning letters, glanced up, her mind visioning for the moment +the youth in question. Kilmer Duelma--tall, stocky, swaggering, +his clothes the loose, nonchalant perfection of the season, his +walk ambling, studied, lackadaisical, aimless, his color high, his +cheeks full, his eyes a little vacuous, his mind acquiescing in a +sort of genial, inconsequential way to every query and thought +that was put to him. The younger of the two sons of Auguste Duelma, +banker, promoter, multimillionaire, he would come into a fortune +estimated roughly at between six and eight millions. At the +Haggertys' the year before he had hung about her in an aimless +fashion. + +Mrs. Batjer studied Berenice curiously for a moment, then returned +to her needlework. "I've asked him down over this week-end," she +suggested. + +"Yes?" queried Berenice, sweetly. "Are there others?" + +"Of course," assented Mrs. Batjer, remotely. "Kilmer doesn't +interest you, I presume." + +Berenice smiled enigmatically. + +"You remember Clarissa Faulkner, don't you, Bevy?" pursued Mrs. +Batjer. "She married Romulus Garrison." + +"Perfectly. Where is she now?" + +"They have leased the Chateau Brieul at Ars for the winter. Romulus +is a fool, but Clarissa is so clever. You know she writes that +she is holding a veritable court there this season. Half the smart +set of Paris and London are dropping in. It is so charming for +her to be able to do those things now. Poor dear! At one time I +was quite troubled over her." + +Without giving any outward sign Berenice did not fail to gather +the full import of the analogy. It was all true. One must begin +early to take thought of one's life. She suffered a disturbing +sense of duty. Kilmer Duelma arrived at noon Friday with six types +of bags, a special valet, and a preposterous enthusiasm for polo +and hunting (diseases lately acquired from a hunting set in the +Berkshires). A cleverly contrived compliment supposed to have +emanated from Miss Fleming and conveyed to him with tact by Mrs. +Batjer brought him ambling into Berenice's presence suggesting a +Sunday drive to Saddle Rock. + +"Haw! haw! You know, I'm deiighted to see you again. Haw! haw! +It's been an age since I've seen the Haggertys. We missed you +after you left. Haw! haw! I did, you know. Since I saw you I +have taken up polo--three ponies with me all the time now--haw! +haw!--a regular stable nearly." + +Berenice strove valiantly to retain a serene interest. Duty was +in her mind, the Chateau Brieul, the winter court of Clarissa +Garrison, some first premonitions of the flight of time. Yet the +drive was a bore, conversation a burden, the struggle to respond +titanic, impossible. When Monday came she fled, leaving three +days between that and a week-end at Morristown. Mrs. Batjer--who +read straws most capably--sighed. Her own Corscaden was not much +beyond his money, but life must be lived and the ambitious must +inherit wealth or gather it wisely. Some impossible scheming +silly would soon collect Duelma, and then-- She considered Berenice +a little difficult. + +Berenice could not help piecing together the memory of this incident +with her mother's recent appeal in behalf of Lieutenant Braxmar. +A great, cloying, disturbing, disintegrating factor in her life +was revealed by the dawning discovery that she and her mother were +without much money, that aside from her lineage she was in a certain +sense an interloper in society. There were never rumors of great +wealth in connection with her--no flattering whispers or public +notices regarding her station as an heiress. All the smug minor +manikins of the social world were on the qui vive for some +cotton-headed doll of a girl with an endless bank-account. By +nature sybaritic, an intense lover of art fabrics, of stately +functions, of power and success in every form, she had been dreaming +all this while of a great soul-freedom and art-freedom under some +such circumstances as the greatest individual wealth of the day, +and only that, could provide. Simultaneously she had vaguely +cherished the idea that if she ever found some one who was truly +fond of her, and whom she could love or even admire intensely--some +one who needed her in a deep, sincere way--she would give herself +freely and gladly. Yet who could it be? She had been charmed by +Braxmar, but her keen, analytic intelligence required some one +harder, more vivid, more ruthless, some one who would appeal to +her as an immense force. Yet she must be conservative, she must +play what cards she had to win. + +During his summer visit at Narragansett Cowperwood had not been +long disturbed by the presence of Braxmar, for, having received +special orders, the latter was compelled to hurry away to Hampton +Roads. But the following November, forsaking temporarily his +difficult affairs in Chicago for New York and the Carter apartment +in Central Park South, Cowperwood again encountered the Lieutenant, +who arrived one evening brilliantly arrayed in full official regalia +in order to escort Berenice to a ball. A high military cap +surmounting his handsome face, his epaulets gleaming in gold, the +lapels of his cape thrown back to reveal a handsome red silken +lining, his sword clanking by his side, he seemed a veritable +singing flame of youth. Cowperwood, caught in the drift of +circumstance--age, unsuitableness, the flaring counter-attractions +of romance and vigor--fairly writhed in pain. + +Berenice was so beautiful in a storm of diaphanous clinging garments. +He stared at them from an adjacent room, where he pretended to +be reading, and sighed. Alas, how was his cunning and foresight +--even his--to overcome the drift of life itself? How was he to +make himself appealing to youth? Braxmar had the years, the color, +the bearing. Berenice seemed to-night, as she prepared to leave, +to be fairly seething with youth, hope, gaiety. He arose after a +few moments and, giving business as an excuse, hurried away. But +it was only to sit in his own rooms in a neighboring hotel and +meditate. The logic of the ordinary man under such circumstances, +compounded of the age-old notions of chivalry, self-sacrifice, +duty to higher impulses, and the like, would have been to step +aside in favor of youth, to give convention its day, and retire +in favor of morality and virtue. Cowperwood saw things in no such +moralistic or altruistic light. "I satisfy myself," had ever been +his motto, and under that, however much he might sympathize with +Berenice in love or with love itself, he was not content to withdraw +until he was sure that the end of hope for him had really come. +There had been moments between him and Berenice--little approximations +toward intimacy--which had led him to believe that by no means was +she seriously opposed to him. At the same time this business of +the Lieutenant, so Mrs. Carter confided to him a little later, +was not to be regarded lightly. While Berenice might not care so +much, obviously Braxmar did. + +"Ever since he has been away he has been storming her with letters," +she remarked to Cowperwood, one afternoon. "I don't think he is +the kind that can be made to take no for an answer. + +"A very successful kind," commented Cowperwood, dryly. Mrs. Carter +was eager for advice in the matter. Braxmar was a man of parts. +She knew his connections. He would inherit at least six hundred +thousand dollars at his father's death, if not more. What about +her Louisville record? Supposing that should come out later? Would +it not be wise for Berenice to marry, and have the danger over +with? + +"It is a problem, isn't it?" observed Cowperwood, calmly. "Are +you sure she's in love?" + +"Oh, I wouldn't say that, but such things so easily turn into love. +I have never believed that Berenice could be swept off her feet +by any one--she is so thoughtful--but she knows she has her own +way to make in the world, and Mr. Braxmar is certainly eligible. +I know his cousins, the Clifford Porters, very well." + +Cowperwood knitted his brows. He was sick to his soul with this +worry over Berenice. He felt that he must have her, even at the +cost of inflicting upon her a serious social injury. Better that +she should surmount it with him than escape it with another. It +so happened, however, that the final grim necessity of acting on +any such idea was spared him. + +Imagine a dining-room in one of the principal hotels of New York, +the hour midnight, after an evening at the opera, to which Cowperwood, +as host, had invited Berenice, Lieutenant Braxmar, and Mrs. Carter. +He was now playing the role of disinterested host and avuncular +mentor. + +His attitude toward Berenice, meditating, as he was, a course which +should be destructive to Braxmar, was gentle, courteous, serenely +thoughtful. Like a true Mephistopheles he was waiting, surveying +Mrs. Carter and Berenice, who were seated in front chairs clad in +such exotic draperies as opera-goers affect--Mrs. Carter in +pale-lemon silk and diamonds; Berenice in purple and old-rose, +with a jeweled comb in her hair. The Lieutenant in his dazzling +uniform smiled and talked blandly, complimented the singers, +whispered pleasant nothings to Berenice, descanted at odd moments +to Cowperwood on naval personages who happened to be present. +Coming out of the opera and driving through blowy, windy streets +to the Waldorf, they took the table reserved for them, and Cowperwood, +after consulting with regard to the dishes and ordering the wine, +went back reminiscently to the music, which had been "La Boheme." +The death of Mimi and the grief of Rodolph, as voiced by the +splendid melodies of Puccini, interested him. + +"That makeshift studio world may have no connection with the genuine +professional artist, but it's very representative of life," he +remarked. + +"I don't know, I'm sure," said Braxmar, seriously. + +"All I know of Bohemia is what I have read in books--Trilby, for +instance, and--" He could think of no other, and stopped. "I +suppose it is that way in Paris." + +He looked at Berenice for confirmation and to win a smile. Owing +to her mobile and sympathetic disposition, she had during the opera +been swept from period to period by surges of beauty too gay or +pathetic for words, but clearly comprehended of the spirit. Once +when she had been lost in dreamy contemplation, her hands folded +on her knees, her eyes fixed on the stage, both Braxmar and +Cowperwood had studied her parted lips and fine profile with common +impulses of emotion and enthusiasm. Realizing after the mood was +gone that they had been watching her, Berenice had continued the +pose for a moment, then had waked as from a dream with a sigh. +This incident now came back to her as well as her feeling in regard +to the opera generally. + +"It is very beautiful," she said; "I do not know what to say. +People are like that, of course. It is so much better than just +dull comfort. Life is really finest when it's tragic, anyhow." + +She looked at Cowperwood, who was studying her; then at Braxmar, +who saw himself for the moment on the captain's bridge of a +battle-ship commanding in time of action. To Cowperwood came back +many of his principal moments of difficulty. Surely his life had +been sufficiently dramatic to satisfy her. + +"I don't think I care so much for it," interposed Mrs. Carter. +"One gets tired of sad happenings. We have enough drama in real +life." + +Cowperwood and Braxmar smiled faintly. Berenice looked contemplatively +away. The crush of diners, the clink of china and glass, the +bustling to and fro of waiters, and the strumming of the orchestra +diverted her somewhat, as did the nods and smiles of some entering +guests who recognized Braxmar and herself, hut not Cowperwood. + +Suddenly from a neighboring door, opening from the men's cafe and +grill, there appeared the semi-intoxicated figure of an ostensibly +swagger society man, his clothing somewhat awry, an opera-coat +hanging loosely from one shoulder, a crush-opera-hat dangling in +one hand, his eyes a little bloodshot, his under lip protruding +slightly and defiantly, and his whole visage proclaiming that +devil-may-care, superior, and malicious aspect which the drunken +rake does not so much assume as achieve. He looked sullenly, +uncertainly about; then, perceiving Cowperwood and his party, made +his way thither in the half-determined, half-inconsequential +fashion of one not quite sound after his cups. When he was directly +opposite Cowperwood's table--the cynosure of a number of eyes--he +suddenly paused as if in recognition, and, coming over, laid a +genial and yet condescending hand on Mrs. Carter's bare shoulder. + +"Why, hello, Hattie!" he called, leeringly and jeeringly. "What +are you doing down here in New York? You haven't given up your +business in Louisville, have you, eh, old sport? Say, lemme tell +you something. I haven't had a single decent girl since you +left--not one. If you open a house down here, let me know, will +you?" + +He bent over her smirkingly and patronizingly the while he made +as if to rummage in his white waistcoat pocket for a card. At the +same moment Cowperwood and Braxmar, realizing quite clearly the +import of his words, were on their feet. While Mrs. Carter was +pulling and struggling back from the stranger, Braxmar's hand (he +being the nearest) was on him, and the head waiter and two assistants +had appeared. + +"What is the trouble here? What has he done?" they demanded. + +Meanwhile the intruder, leering contentiously at them all, was +exclaiming in very audible tones: "Take your hands off. Who are +you? What the devil have you got to do with this? Don't you think +I know what I'm about? She knows me--don't you, Hattie? That's +Hattie Starr, of Louisville--ask her! She kept one of the swellest +ever run in Louisville. What do you people want to be so upset +about? I know what I'm doing. She knows me." + +He not only protested, but contested, and with some vehemence. +Cowperwood, Braxmar, and the waiters forming a cordon, he was +shoved and hustled out into the lobby and the outer entranceway, +and an officer was called. + +"This man should be arrested," Cowperwood protested, vigorously, +when the latter appeared. "He has grossly insulted lady guests +of mine. He is drunk and disorderly, and I wish to make that +charge. Here is my card. Will you let me know where to come?" +He handed it over, while Braxmar, scrutinizing the stranger with +military care, added: "I should like to thrash you within an inch +of your life. If you weren't drunk I would. If you are a gentleman +and have a card I want you to give it to me. I want to talk to +you later." He leaned over and presented a cold, hard face to that +of Mr. Beales Chadsey, of Louisville, Kentucky. + +"Tha's all right, Captain," leered Chadsey, mockingly. "I got a +card. No harm done. Here you are. You c'n see me any time you +want--Hotel Buckingham, Fifth Avenue and Fiftieth Street. I got +a right to speak to anybody I please, where I please, when I please. +See?" + +He fumbled and protested while the officer stood by read to take +him in charge. Not finding a card, he added: "Tha's all right. +Write it down. Beales Chadsey, Hotel Buckingham, or Louisville, +Kentucky. See me any time you want to. Tha's Hattie Starr. She +knows me. I couldn't make a mistake about her--not once in a +million. Many's the night I spent in her house." + +Braxmar was quite ready to lunge at him had not the officer +intervened. + +Back in the dining-room Berenice and her mother were sitting, the +latter quite flustered, pale, distrait, horribly taken aback--by +far too much distressed for any convincing measure of deception. + +"Why, the very idea!" she was saying. "That dreadful man! How +terrible! I never saw him before in my life." + +Berenice, disturbed and nonplussed, was thinking of the familiar +and lecherous leer with which the stranger had addressed her +mother--the horror, the shame of it. Could even a drunken man, +if utterly mistaken, be so defiant, so persistent, so willing to +explain? What shameful things had she been hearing? + +"Come, mother," she said, gently, and with dignity; "never mind, +it is all right. We can go home at once. You will feel better +when you are out of here." + +She called a waiter and asked him to say to the gentlemen that +they had gone to the women's dressing-room. She pushed an intervening +chair out of the way and gave her mother her arm. + +"To think I should be so insulted," Mrs. Carter mumbled on, "here +in a great hotel, in the presence of Lieutenant Braxmar and Mr. +Cowperwood! This is too dreadful. Well, I never." + +She half whimpered as she walked; and Berenice, surveying the room +with dignity, a lofty superiority in her face, led solemnly forth, +a strange, lacerating pain about her heart. What was at the bottom +of these shameful statements? Why should this drunken roisterer +have selected her mother, of all other women in the dining-room, +for the object of these outrageous remarks? Why should her mother +be stricken, so utterly collapsed, if there were not some truth +in what he had said? It was very strange, very sad, very grim, +very horrible. What would that gossiping, scandal-loving world +of which she knew so much say to a scene like this? For the first +time in her life the import and horror of social ostracism flashed +upon her. + +The following morning, owing to a visit paid to the Jefferson +Market Police Court by Lieutenant Braxmar, where he proposed, if +satisfaction were not immediately guaranteed, to empty cold lead +into Mr. Beales Chadsey's stomach, the following letter on Buckingham +stationery was written and sent to Mrs. Ira George Carter--36 +Central Park South: + +DEAR MADAM: + +Last evening, owing to a drunken debauch, for which I have no +satisfactory or suitable explanation to make, I was the unfortunate +occasion of an outrage upon your feelings and those of your daughter +and friends, for which I wish most humbly to apologize. I cannot +tell you how sincerely I regret whatever I said or did, which I +cannot now clearly recall. My mental attitude when drinking is +both contentious and malicious, and while in this mood and state +I was the author of statements which I know to be wholly unfounded. +In my drunken stupor I mistook you for a certain notorious woman +of Louisville--why, I have not the slightest idea. For this wholly +shameful and outrageous conduct I sincerely ask your pardon--beg +your forgiveness. I do not know what amends I can make, but +anything you may wish to suggest I shall gladly do. In the mean +while I hope you will accept this letter in the spirit in which +it is written and as a slight attempt at recompense which I know +can never fully be made. + +Very sincerely, + +BEALES CHADSEY. + +At the same time Lieutenant Braxmar was fully aware before this +letter was written or sent that the charges implied against Mrs. +Carter were only too well founded. Beales Chadsey had said drunk +what twenty men in all sobriety and even the police at Louisville +would corroborate. Chadsey had insisted on making this clear to +Braxmar before writing the letter. + + + + +Chapter LII + + + +Behind the Arras + +Berenice, perusing the apology from Beales Chadsey, which her +mother--very much fagged and weary--handed her the next morning, +thought that it read like the overnight gallantry of some one who +was seeking to make amends without changing his point of view. +Mrs. Carter was too obviously self-conscious. She protested too +much. Berenice knew that she could find out for herself if she +chose, but would she choose? The thought sickened her, and yet who +was she to judge too severely? + +Cowperwood came in bright and early to put as good a face on the +matter as he could. He explained how he and Braxmar had gone to +the police station to make a charge; how Chadsey, sobered by arrest, +had abandoned his bravado and humbly apologized. When viewing the +letter handed him by Mrs. Carter he exclaimed: + +"Oh yes. He was very glad to promise to write that if we would +let him off. Braxmar seemed to think it was necessary that he +should. I wanted the judge to impose a fine and let it go at that. +He was drunk, and that's all there was to it." + +He assumed a very unknowing air when in the presence of Berenice +and her mother, but when alone with the latter his manner changed +completely. + +"Brazen it out," he commanded. "It doesn't amount to anything. +Braxmar doesn't believe that this man really knows anything. This +letter is enough to convince Berenice. Put a good face on it; +more depends on your manner than on anything else. You're much +too upset. That won't do at all; you'll tell the whole story that +way." + +At the same time he privately regarded this incident as a fine +windfall of chance--in all likelihood the one thing which would +serve to scare the Lieutenant away. Outwardly, however, he demanded +effrontery, assumption; and Mrs. Carter was somewhat cheered, but +when she was alone she cried. Berenice, coming upon her accidentally +and finding her eyes wet, exclaimed: + +"Oh, mother, please don't be foolish. How can you act this way? +We had better go up in the country and rest a little while if you +are so unstrung." + +Mrs. Carter protested that it was merely nervous reaction, but to +Berenice it seemed that where there was so much smoke there must +be some fire. + +Her manner in the aftermath toward Braxmar was gracious, but remote. +He called the next day to say how sorry he was, and to ask her +to a new diversion. She was sweet, but distant. In so far as she +was concerned it was plain that the Beales Chadsey incident was +closed, but she did not accept his invitation. + +"Mother and I are planning to go to the country for a few days," +she observed, genially. "I can't say just when we shall return, +but if you are still here we shall meet, no doubt. You must be +sure and come to see us." She turned to an east court-window, where +the morning sun was gleaming on some flowers in a window-box, and +began to pinch off a dead leaf here and there. + +Braxmar, full of the tradition of American romance, captivated by +her vibrant charm, her poise and superiority under the circumstances, +her obvious readiness to dismiss him, was overcome, as the human +mind frequently is, by a riddle of the spirit, a chemical reaction +as mysterious to its victim as to one who is its witness. Stepping +forward with a motion that was at once gallant, reverent, eager, +unconscious, he exclaimed: + +"Berenice! Miss Fleming! Please don't send me away like this. +Don't leave me. It isn't anything I have done, is it? I am mad +about you. I can't bear to think that anything that has happened +could make any difference between you and me. I haven't had the +courage to tell you before, but I want to tell you now. I have +been in love with you from the very first night I saw you. You +are such a wonderful girl! I don't feel that I deserve you, but I +love you. I love you with all the honor and force in me. I admire +and respect you. Whatever may or may not be true, it is all one +and the same to me. Be my wife, will you? Marry me, please! Oh, +I'm not fit to be the lacer of your shoes, but I have position and +I'll make a name for myself, I hope. Oh, Berenice!" He extended +his arms in a dramatic fashion, not outward, but downward, stiff +and straight, and declared: "I don't know what I shall do without +you. Is there no hope for me at all?" + +An artist in all the graces of sex--histrionic, plastic, many-faceted +--Berenice debated for the fraction of a minute what she should +do and say. She did not love the Lieutenant as he loved her by +any means, and somehow this discovery concerning her mother shamed +her pride, suggesting an obligation to save herself in one form +or another, which she resented bitterly. She was sorry for his +tactless proposal at this time, although she knew well enough the +innocence and virtue of the emotion from which it sprung. + +"Really, Mr. Braxmar," she replied, turning on him with solemn +eyes, you mustn't ask me to decide that now. I know how you feel. +I'm afraid, though, that I may have been a little misleading in +my manner. I didn't mean to be. I'm quite sure you'd better +forget your interest in me for the present anyhow. I could only +make up my mind in one way if you should insist. I should have +to ask you to forget me entirely. I wonder if you can see how I +feel--how it hurts me to say this?" + +She paused, perfectly poised, yet quite moved really, as charming +a figure as one would have wished to see--part Greek, part +Oriental--contemplative, calculating. + +In that moment, for the first time, Braxmar realized that he was +talking to some one whom he could not comprehend really. She was +strangely self-contained, enigmatic, more beautiful perhaps because +more remote than he had ever seen her before. In a strange flash +this young American saw the isles of Greece, Cytherea, the lost +Atlantis, Cyprus, and its Paphian shrine. His eyes burned with a +strange, comprehending luster; his color, at first high, went pale. + +"I can't believe you don't care for me at all, Miss Berenice," he +went on, quite strainedly. "I felt you did care about me. But +here," he added, all at once, with a real, if summoned, military +force, "I won't bother you. You do understand me. You know how +I feel. I won't change. Can't we be friends, anyhow?" + +He held out his hand, and she took it, feeling now that she was +putting an end to what might have been an idyllic romance. + +"Of course we can," she said. "I hope I shall see you again soon." + +After he was gone she walked into the adjoining room and sat down +in a wicker chair, putting her elbows on her knees and resting her +chin in her hands. What a denouement to a thing so innocent, so +charming! And now he was gone. She would not see him any more, +would not want to see him--not much, anyhow. Life had sad, even +ugly facts. Oh yes, yes, and she was beginning to perceive them +clearly. + +Some two days later, when Berenice had brooded and brooded until +she could endure it no longer, she finally went to Mrs. Carter and +said: "Mother, why don't you tell me all about this Louisville +matter so that I may really know? I can see something is worrying +you. Can't you trust me? I am no longer a child by any means, and +I am your daughter. It may help me to straighten things out, to +know what to do." + +Mrs. Carter, who had always played a game of lofty though loving +motherhood, was greatly taken aback by this courageous attitude. +She flushed and chilled a little; then decided to lie. + +"I tell you there was nothing at all," she declared, nervously and +pettishly. "It is all an awful mistake. I wish that dreadful man +could be punished severely for what he said to me. To be outraged +and insulted this way before my own child!" + +"Mother," questioned Berenice, fixing her with those cool, blue +eyes, "why don't you tell me all about Louisville? You and I +shouldn't have things between us. Maybe I can help you." + +All at once Mrs. Carter, realizing that her daughter was no longer +a child nor a mere social butterfly, but a woman superior, cool, +sympathetic, with intuitions much deeper than her own, sank into +a heavily flowered wing-chair behind her, and, seeking a small +pocket-handkerchief with one hand, placed the other over her eyes +and began to cry. + +"I was so driven, Bevy, I didn't know which way to turn. Colonel +Gillis suggested it. I wanted to keep you and Rolfe in school and +give you a chance. It isn't true--anything that horrible man +said. It wasn't anything like what he suggested. Colonel Gillis +and several others wanted me to rent them bachelor quarters, and +that's the way it all came about. It wasn't my fault; I couldn't +help myself, Bevy." + +"And what about Mr. Cowperwood?" inquired Berenice curiously. She +had begun of late to think a great deal about Cowperwood. He was +so cool, deep, dynamic, in a way resourceful, like herself. + +"There's nothing about him," replied Mrs. Carter, looking up +defensively. Of all her men friends she best liked Cowperwood. +He had never advised her to evil ways or used her house as a +convenience to himself alone. "He never did anything but help me +out. He advised me to give up my house in Louisville and come +East and devote myself to looking after you and Rolfe. He offered +to help me until you two should be able to help yourselves, and +so I came. Oh, if I had only not been so foolish--so afraid of +life! But your father and Mr. Carter just ran through everything." + +She heaved a deep, heartfelt sigh. + +"Then we really haven't anything at all, have we, mother--property +or anything else?" + +Mrs. Carter shook her head, meaning no. + +"And the money we have been spending is Mr. Cowperwood's?" + +"Yes." + +Berenice paused and looked out the window over the wide stretch +of park which it commanded. Framed in it like a picture were a +small lake, a hill of trees, with a Japanese pagoda effect in the +foreground. Over the hill were the yellow towering walls of a +great hotel in Central Park West. In the street below could be +heard the jingle of street-cars. On a road in the park could be +seen a moving line of pleasure vehicles--society taking an airing +in the chill November afternoon. + +"Poverty, ostracism," she thought. And should she marry rich? Of +course, if she could. And whom should she marry? The Lieutenant? +Never. He was really not masterful enough mentally, and he had +witnessed her discomfiture. And who, then? Oh, the long line of +sillies, light-weights, rakes, ne'er-do-wells, who, combined with +sober, prosperous, conventional, muddle-headed oofs, constituted +society. Here and there, at far jumps, was a real man, but would +he be interested in her if he knew the whole truth about her? + +"Have you broken with Mr. Braxmar?" asked her mother, curiously, +nervously, hopefully, hopelessly. + +"I haven't seen him since," replied Berenice, lying conservatively. +"I don't know whether I shall or not. I want to think." She +arose. "But don't you mind, mother. Only I wish we had some other +way of living besides being dependent on Mr. Cowperwood." + +She walked into her boudoir, and before her mirror began to dress +for a dinner to which she had been invited. So it was Cowperwood's +money that had been sustaining them all during the last few years; +and she had been so liberal with his means--so proud, vain, boastful, +superior. And he had only fixed her with those inquiring, examining +eyes. Why? But she did not need to ask herself why. She knew +now. What a game he had been playing, and what a silly she had +been not to see it. Did her mother in any way suspect? She doubted +it. This queer, paradoxical, impossible world! The eyes of +Cowperwood burned at her as she thought. + + + + +Chapter LIII + + + +A Declaration of Love + +For the first time in her life Berenice now pondered seriously +what she could do. She thought of marriage, but decided that +instead of sending for Braxmar or taking up some sickening chase +of an individual even less satisfactory it might be advisable to +announce in a simple social way to her friends that her mother had +lost her money, and that she herself was now compelled to take up +some form of employment--the teaching of dancing, perhaps, or the +practice of it professionally. She suggested this calmly to her +mother one day. Mrs. Carter, who had been long a parasite really, +without any constructive monetary notions of real import, was +terrified. To think that she and "Bevy," her wonderful daughter, +and by reaction her son, should come to anything so humdrum and +prosaic as ordinary struggling life, and after all her dreams. +She sighed and cried in secret, writing Cowperwood a cautious +explanation and asking him to see her privately in New York when +he returned. + +"Don't you think we had best go on a little while longer?" she +suggested to Berenice. "It just wrings my heart to think that +you, with your qualifications, should have to stoop to giving +dancing-lessons. We had better do almost anything for a while +yet. You can make a suitable marriage, and then everything will +be all right for you. It doesn't matter about me. I can live. +But you--" Mrs. Carter's strained eyes indicated the misery she +felt. Berenice was moved by this affection for her, which she +knew to be genuine; but what a fool her mother had been, what a +weak reed, indeed, she was to lean upon! Cowperwood, when he +conferred with Mrs. Carter, insisted that Berenice was quixotic, +nervously awry, to wish to modify her state, to eschew society and +invalidate her wondrous charm by any sort of professional life. +By prearrangement with Mrs. Carter he hurried to Pocono at a time +when he knew that Berenice was there alone. Ever since the Beales +Chadsey incident she had been evading him. + +When he arrived, as he did about one in the afternoon of a crisp +January day, there was snow on the ground, and the surrounding +landscape was bathed in a crystalline light that gave back to the +eye endless facets of luster--jewel beams that cut space with a +flash. The automobile had been introduced by now, and he rode in +a touring-car of eighty horse-power that gave back from its +dark-brown, varnished surface a lacquered light. In a great fur +coat and cap of round, black lamb's-wool he arrived at the door. + +"Well, Bevy," he exclaimed, pretending not to know of Mrs. Carter's +absence, "how are you? How's your mother? Is she in?" + +Berenice fixed him with her cool, steady-gazing eyes, as frank and +incisive as they were daring, and smiled him an equivocal welcome. +She wore a blue denim painter's apron, and a palette of many +colors glistened under her thumb. She was painting and thinking +--thinking being her special occupation these days, and her thoughts +had been of Braxmar, Cowperwood, Kilmer Duelma, a half-dozen others, +as well as of the stage, dancing, painting. Her life was in a +melting-pot, as it were, before her; again it was like a disarranged +puzzle, the pieces of which might be fitted together into some +interesting picture if she could but endure. + +"Do come in," she said. "It's cold, isn't it? Well, there's a +nice fire here for you. No, mother isn't here. She went down to +New York. I should think you might have found her at the apartment. +Are you in New York for long?" + +She was gay, cheerful, genial, but remote. Cowperwood felt the +protective gap that lay between him and her. It had always been +there. He felt that, even though she might understand and like +him, yet there was something--convention, ambition, or some +deficiency on his part--that was keeping her from him, keeping her +eternally distant. + +He looked about the room, at the picture she was attempting (a +snow-scape, of a view down a slope), at the view itself which he +contemplated from the window, at some dancing sketches she had +recently executed and hung on the wall for the time being--lovely, +short tunic motives. He looked at her in her interesting and +becoming painter's apron. "Well, Berenice," he said, "always the +artist first. It is your world. You will never escape it. These +things are beautiful." He waved an ungloved hand in the direction +of a choric line. "It wasn't your mother I came to see, anyhow. +It is you. I had such a curious letter from her. She tells me +you want to give up society and take to teaching or something of +that sort. I came because I wanted to talk to you about that. +Don't you think you are acting rather hastily?" + +He spoke now as though there were some reason entirely disassociated +from himself that was impelling him to this interest in her. + +Berenice, brush in hand, standing by her picture, gave him a look +that was cool, curious, defiant, equivocal. + +"No, I don't think so," she replied, quietly. "You know how things +have been, so I may speak quite frankly. I know that mother's +intentions were always of the best." + +Her mouth moved with the faintest touch of sadness. "Her heart, +I am afraid, is better than her head. As for your motives, I am +satisfied to believe that they have been of the best also. I know +that they have been, in fact--it would be ungenerous of me to +suggest anything else." (Cowperwood's fixed eyes, it seemed to +her, had moved somewhere in their deepest depths.) "Yet I don't +feel we can go on as we have been doing. We have no money of our +own. Why shouldn't I do something? What else can I really do?" + +She paused, and Cowperwood gazed at her, quite still. In her +informal, bunchy painter's apron, and with her blue eyes looking +out at him from beneath her loose red hair, it seemed to him she +was the most perfect thing he had ever known. Such a keen, fixed, +enthroned mind. She was so capable, so splendid, and, like his +own, her eyes were unafraid. Her spiritual equipoise was undisturbed. + +"Berenice," he said, quietly, "let me tell you something. You did +me the honor just now to speak of my motives ingiving your mother +money as of the best. They were--from my own point of view--the +best I have ever known. I will not say what I thought they were +in the beginning. I know what they were now. I am going to speak +quite frankly with you, if you will let me, as long as we are here +together. I don't know whether you know this or not, but when I +first met your mother I only knew by chance that she had a daughter, +and it was of no particular interest to me then. I went to her +house as the guest of a financial friend of mine who admired her +greatly. From the first I myself admired her, because I found her +to be a lady to the manner born--she was interesting. One day I +happened to see a photograph of you in her home, and before I could +mention it she put it away. Perhaps you recall the one. It is +in profile--taken when you were about sixteen." + +"Yes, I remember," replied Berenice, simply--as quietly as though +she were hearing a confession. + +"Well, that picture interested me intensely. I inquired about +you, and learned all I could. After that I saw another picture of +you, enlarged, in a Louisville photographer's window. I bought +it. It is in my office now--my private office--in Chicago. You +are standing by a mantelpiece." + +"I remember," replied Berenice, moved, but uncertain. + +"Let me tell you a little something about my life, will you? It +won't take long. I was born in Philadelphia. My family had always +belonged there. I have been in the banking and street-railway +business all my life. My first wife was a Presbyterian girl, +religious, conventional. She was older than I by six or seven +years. I was happy for a while--five or six years. We had two +children--both still living. Then I met my present wife. She was +younger than myself--at least ten years, and very good-looking. +She was in some respects more intelligent than my first wife--at +least less conventional, more generous, I thought. I fell in love +with her, and when I eventually left Philadelphia I got a divorce +and married her. I was greatly in love with her at the time. I +thought she was an ideal mate for me, and I still think she has +many qualities which make her attractive. But my own ideals in +regard to women have all the time been slowly changing. I have +come to see, through various experiments, that she is not the ideal +woman for me at all. She does not understand me. I don't pretend +to understand myself, but it has occurred to me that there might +be a woman somewhere who would understand me better than I understand +myself, who would see the things that I don't see about myself, +and would like me, anyhow. I might as well tell you that I have +been a lover of women always. There is just one ideal thing in +this world to me, and that is the woman that I would like to have." + +"I should think it would make it rather difficult for any one woman +to discover just which woman you would like to have?" smiled +Berenice, whimsically. Cowperwood was unabashed. + +"It would, I presume, unless she should chance to be the very one +woman I am talking about," he replied, impressively. + +"I should think she would have her work cut out for her under any +circumstances," added Berenice, lightly, but with a touch of +sympathy in her voice. + +"I am making a confession," replied Cowperwood, seriously and a +little heavily. "I am not apologizing for myself. The women I +have known would make ideal wives for some men, but not for me. +Life has taught me that much. It has changed me." + +"And do you think the process has stopped by any means?" she +replied, quaintly, with that air of superior banter which puzzled, +fascinated, defied him. + +"No, I will not say that. My ideal has become fixed, though, +apparently. I have had it for a number of years now. It spoils +other matters for me. There is such a thing as an ideal. We do +have a pole-star in physics." + +As he said this Cowperwood realized that for him he was making a +very remarkable confession. He had come here primarily to magnetize +her and control her judgment. As a matter of fact, it was almost +the other way about. She was almost dominating him. Lithe, +slender, resourceful, histrionic, she was standing before him +making him explain himself, only he did not see her so much in +that light as in the way of a large, kindly, mothering intelligence +which could see, feel, and understand. She would know how it was, +he felt sure. He could make himself understood if he tried. +Whatever he was or had been, she would not take a petty view. She +could not. Her answers thus far guaranteed as much. + +"Yes," she replied, "we do have a pole-star, but you do not seem +able to find it. Do you expect to find your ideal in any living +woman?" + +"I have found it," he answered, wondering at the ingenuity and +complexity of her mind--and of his own, for that matter--of all +mind indeed. Deep below deep it lay, staggering him at times by +its fathomless reaches. "I hope you will take seriously what I +am going to say, for it will explain so much. When I began to be +interested in your picture I was so because it coincided with the +ideal I had in mind--the thing that you think changes swiftly. +That was nearly seven years ago. Since then it has never changed. +When I saw you at your school on Riverside Drive I was fully +convinced. Although I have said nothing, I have remained so. +Perhaps you think I had no right to any such feelings. Most people +would agree with you. I had them and do have them just the same, +and it explains my relation to your mother. When she came to me +once in Louisville and told me of her difficulties I was glad to +help her for your sake. That has been my reason ever since, +although she does not know that. In some respects, Berenice, your +mother is a little dull. All this while I have been in love with +you--intensely so. As you stand there now you seem to me amazingly +beautiful--the ideal I have been telling you about. Don't be +disturbed; I sha'n't press any attentions on you." (Berenice had +moved very slightly. She was concerned as much for him as for +herself. His power was so wide, his power so great. She could +not help taking him seriously when he was so serious.) "I have +done whatever I have done in connection with you and your mother +because I have been in love with you and because I wanted you to +become the splendid thing I thought you ought to become. You have +not known it, but you are the cause of my building the house on +Fifth Avenue--the principal reason. I wanted to build something +worthy of you. A dream? Certainly. Everything we do seems to +have something of that quality. Its beauty, if there is any, is +due to you. I made it beautiful thinking of you. + +He paused, and Berenice gave no sign. Her first impulse had been +to object, but her vanity, her love of art, her love of power--all +were touched. At the same time she was curious now as to whether +he had merely expected to take her as his mistress or to wait until +he could honor her as his wife. + +"I suppose you are wondering whether I ever expected to marry you +or not," he went on, getting the thought out of her mind. "I am +no different from many men in that respect, Berenice. I will be +frank. I wanted you in any way that I could get you. I was living +in the hope all along that you would fall in love with me--as I +had with you. I hated Braxmar here, not long ago, when he appeared +on the scene, but I could never have thought of interfering. I +was quite prepared to give you up. I have envied every man I have +ever seen with you--young and old. I have even envied your mother +for being so close to you when I could not be. At the same time +I have wanted you to have everything that would help you in any +way. I did not want to interfere with you in case you found some +one whom you could truly love if I knew that you could not love +me. There is the whole story outside of anything you may know. +But it is not because of this that I came to-day. Not to tell you +this." + +He paused, as if expecting her to say something, though she made +no comment beyond a questioning "Yes?" + +"The thing that I have come to say is that I want you to go on as +you were before. Whatever you may think of me or of what I have +just told you, I want you to believe that I am sincere and +disinterested in what I am telling you now. My dream in connection +with you is not quite over. Chance might make me eligible if you +should happen to care. But I want you to go on and be happy, +regardless of me. I have dreamed, but I dare say it has been a +mistake. Hold your head high--you have a right to. Be a lady. +Marry any one you really love. I will see that you have a suitable +marriage portion. I love you, Berenice, but I will make it a +fatherly affection from now on. When I die I will put you in my +will. But go on now in the spirit you were going before. I really +can't be happy unless I think you are going to be." + +He paused, still looking at her, believing for the time being what +he said. If he should die she would find herself in his will. +If she were to go on and socialize and seek she might find some +one to love, but also she might think of him more kindly before +she did so. What would be the cost of her as a ward compared to +his satisfaction and delight in having her at least friendly and +sympathetic and being in her good graces and confidence? + +Berenice, who had always been more or less interested in him, +temperamentally biased, indeed, in his direction because of his +efficiency, simplicity, directness, and force, was especially +touched in this instance by his utter frankness and generosity. +She might question his temperamental control over his own sincerity +in the future, but she could scarcely question that at present he +was sincere. Moreover, his long period of secret love and admiration, +the thought of so powerful a man dreaming of her in this fashion, +was so flattering. It soothed her troubled vanity and shame in +what had gone before. His straightforward confession had a kind +of nobility which was electric, moving. She looked at him as he +stood there, a little gray about the temples--the most appealing +ornament of some men to some women--and for the life of her she +could not help being moved by a kind of tenderness, sympathy, +mothering affection. Obviously he did need the woman his attitude +seemed to show that he needed, some woman of culture, spirit, +taste, amorousness; or, at least, he was entitled to dream of her. +As he stood before her he seemed a kind of superman, and yet also +a bad boy--handsome, powerful, hopeful, not so very much older +than herself now, impelled by some blazing internal force which +harried him on and on. How much did he really care for her? How +much could he? How much could he care for any one? Yet see all he +had done to interest her. What did that mean? To say all this? +To do all this? Outside was his car brown and radiant in the snow. +He was the great Frank Algernon Cowperwood, of Chicago, and he +was pleading with her, a mere chit of a girl, to be kind to him, +not to put him out of her life entirely. It touched her intellect, +her pride, her fancy. + +Aloud she said: "I like you better now. I really believe in you. +I never did, quite, before. Not that I think I ought to let you +spend your money on me or mother--I don't. But I admire you. You +make me. I understand how it is, I think. I know what your +ambitions are. I have always felt that I did, in part. But you +mustn't talk to me any more now. I want to think. I want to think +over what you have said. I don't know whether I can bring myself +to it or not." (She noticed that his eyes seemed to move somehow +in their deepest depths again.) "But we won't talk about it any +more at present." + +"But, Berenice," he added, with a real plea in his voice, "I wonder +if you do understand. I have been so lonely--I am--" + +"Yes, I do," she replied, holding out her hand. "We are going to +be friends, whatever happens, from now on, because I really like +you. You mustn't ask me to decide about the other, though, to-day. +I can't do it. I don't want to. I don't care to." + +"Not when I would so gladly give you everything--when I need it +so little?" + +"Not until I think it out for myself. I don't think so, though. +No," she replied, with an air. "There, Mr. Guardian Father," she +laughed, pushing his hand away. + +Cowperwood's heart bounded. He would have given millions to take +her close in his arms. As it was he smiled appealingly. + +"Don't you want to jump in and come to New York with me? If your +mother isn't at the apartment you could stop at the Netherland." + +"No, not to-day. I expect to be in soon. I will let you know, +or mother will." + +He bustled out and into the machine after a moment of parley, +waving to her over the purpling snow of the evening as his machine +tore eastward, planning to make New York by dinner-time. If he +could just keep her in this friendly, sympathetic attitude. If +he only could! + + + + +Chapter LIV + + + +Wanted--Fifty-year Franchises + +Whatever his momentary satisfaction in her friendly acceptance of +his confession, the uncertain attitude of Berenice left Cowperwood +about where he was before. By a strange stroke of fate Braxmar, +his young rival, had been eliminated, and Berenice had been made +to see him, Cowperwood, in his true colors of love and of service +for her. Yet plainly she did not accept them at his own valuation. +More than ever was he conscious of the fact that he had fallen +in tow of an amazing individual, one who saw life from a distinct +and peculiar point of view and who was not to be bent to his will. +That fact more than anything else--for her grace and beauty merely +emblazoned it--caused him to fall into a hopeless infatuation. + +He said to himself over and over, "Well, I can live without her +if I must," but at this stage the mere thought was an actual stab +in his vitals. What, after all, was life, wealth, fame, if you +couldn't have the woman you wanted--love, that indefinable, +unnamable coddling of the spirit which the strongest almost more +than the weakest crave? At last he saw clearly, as within a +chalice-like nimbus, that the ultimate end of fame, power, vigor +was beauty, and that beauty was a compound of the taste, the +emotion, the innate culture, passion, and dreams of a woman like +Berenice Fleming. That was it: that was it. And beyond was nothing +save crumbling age, darkness, silence. + +In the mean time, owing to the preliminary activity and tact of +his agents and advisers, the Sunday newspapers were vying with one +another in describing the wonders of his new house in New York--its +cost, the value of its ground, the wealthy citizens with whom the +Cowperwoods would now be neighbors. There were double-column +pictures of Aileen and Cowperwood, with articles indicating them +as prospective entertainers on a grand scale who would unquestionably +be received because of their tremendous wealth. As a matter of +fact, this was purely newspaper gossip and speculation. While the +general columns made news and capital of his wealth, special society +columns, which dealt with the ultra-fashionable, ignored him +entirely. Already the machination of certain Chicago social figures +in distributing information as to his past was discernible in the +attitude of those clubs, organizations, and even churches, membership +in which constitutes a form of social passport to better and higher +earthly, if not spiritual, realms. His emissaries were active +enough, but soon found that their end was not to be gained in a +day. Many were waiting locally, anxious enough to get in, and +with social equipments which the Cowperwoods could scarcely boast. +After being blackballed by one or two exclusive clubs, seeing his +application for a pew at St. Thomas's quietly pigeon-holed for the +present, and his invitations declined by several multimillionaires +whom he met in the course of commercial transactions, he began to +feel that his splendid home, aside from its final purpose as an +art-museum, could be of little value. + +At the same time Cowperwood's financial genius was constantly being +rewarded by many new phases of materiality chiefly by an offensive +and defensive alliance he was now able to engineer between himself +and the house of Haeckelheimer, Gotloeb & Co. Seeing the iron +manner in which he had managed to wrest victory out of defeat after +the first seriously contested election, these gentlemen had +experienced a change of heart and announced that they would now +gladly help finance any new enterprise which Cowperwood might +undertake. Among many other financiers, they had heard of his +triumph in connection with the failure of American Match. + +"Dot must be a right cleffer man, dot Cowperwood," Mr. Gotloeb +told several of his partners, rubbing his hands and smiling. "I +shouldt like to meet him." + +And so Cowperwood was manoeuvered into the giant banking office, +where Mr. Gotloeb extended a genial hand. + +"I hear much of Chicawkgo," he explained, in his semi-German, +semi-Hebraic dialect, "but almozd more uff you. Are you goink to +swallow up all de street-railwaiss unt elefated roats out dere?" + +Cowperwood smiled his most ingenuous smile. + +"Why? Would you like me to leave a few for you?" + +"Not dot exzagly, but I might not mint sharink in some uff dem wit +you." + +"You can join with me at any time, Mr. Gotloeb, as you must know. +The door is always very, very wide open for you." + +"I musd look into dot some more. It loogs very promising to me. +I am gladt to meet you." + +The great external element in Cowperwood's financial success--and +one which he himself had foreseen from the very beginning--was the +fact that Chicago was developing constantly. What had been when +he arrived a soggy, messy plain strewn with shanties, ragged +sidewalks, a higgledy-piggledy business heart, was now truly an +astounding metropolis which had passed the million mark in population +and which stretched proud and strong over the greater part of Cook +County. Where once had been a meager, makeshift financial section, +with here and there only a splendid business building or hotel or +a public office of some kind, there were now canon-like streets +lined with fifteen and even eighteen story office buildings, from +the upper stories of which, as from watch-towers, might be surveyed +the vast expanding regions of simple home life below. Farther out +were districts of mansions, parks, pleasure resorts, great worlds +of train-yards and manufacturing areas. In the commercial heart +of this world Frank Algernon Cowperwood had truly become a figure +of giant significance. How wonderful it is that men grow until, +like colossi, they bestride the world, or, like banyan-trees, they +drop roots from every branch and are themselves a forest--a forest +of intricate commercial life, of which a thousand material aspects +are the evidence. His street-railway properties were like a +net--the parasite Gold Thread--linked together as they were, and +draining two of the three important "sides" of the city. + +In 1886, when he had first secured a foothold, they had been +capitalized at between six and seven millions (every device for +issuing a dollar on real property having been exhausted). To-day, +under his management, they were capitalized at between sixty and +seventy millions. The majority of the stock issued and sold was +subject to a financial device whereby twenty per cent. controlled +eighty per cent., Cowperwood holding that twenty per cent. and +borrowing money on it as hypothecated collateral. In the case of +the West Side corporation, a corporate issue of over thirty millions +had been made, and these stocks, owing to the tremendous carrying +power of the roads and the swelling traffic night and morning of +poor sheep who paid their hard-earned nickels, had a market value +which gave the road an assured physical value of about three times +the sum for which it could have been built. The North Chicago +company, which in 1886 had a physical value of little more than a +million, could not now be duplicated for less than seven millions, +and was capitalized at nearly fifteen millions. The road was +valued at over one hundred thousand dollars more per mile than the +sum for which it could actually have been replaced. Pity the poor +groveling hack at the bottom who has not the brain-power either +to understand or to control that which his very presence and +necessities create. + +These tremendous holdings, paying from ten to twelve per cent. on +every hundred-dollar share, were in the control, if not in the +actual ownership, of Cowperwood. Millions in loans that did not +appear on the books of the companies he had converted into actual +cash, wherewith he had bought houses, lands, equipages, paintings, +government bonds of the purest gold value, thereby assuring himself +to that extent of a fortune vaulted and locked, absolutely secure. +After much toiling and moiling on the part of his overworked legal +department he had secured a consolidation, under the title of the +Consolidated Traction Company of Illinois, of all outlying lines, +each having separate franchises and capitalized separately, yet +operated by an amazing hocus-pocus of contracts and agreements in +single, harmonious union with all his other properties. The North +and West Chicago companies he now proposed to unite into a third +company to be called the Union Traction Company. By taking up the +ten and twelve per cent. issues of the old North and West companies +and giving two for one of the new six-per-cent one-hundred-dollar-share +Union Traction stocks in their stead, he could satisfy the current +stockholders, who were apparently made somewhat better off thereby, +and still create and leave for himself a handsome margin of nearly +eighty million dollars. With a renewal of his franchises for twenty, +fifty, or one hundred years he would have fastened on the city of +Chicago the burden of yielding interest on this somewhat fictitious +value and would leave himself personally worth in the neighborhood +of one hundred millions. + +This matter of extending his franchises was a most difficult and +intricate business, however. It involved overcoming or outwitting +a recent and very treacherous increase of local sentiment against +him. This had been occasioned by various details which related +to his elevated roads. To the two lines already built he now added +a third property, the Union Loop. This he prepared to connect not +only with his own, but with other outside elevated properties, +chief among which was Mr. Schryhart's South Side "L." He would +then farm out to his enemies the privilege of running trains on +this new line. However unwillingly, they would be forced to avail +themselves of the proffered opportunity, because within the region +covered by the new loop was the true congestion--here every one +desired to come either once or twice during the day or night. By +this means Cowperwood would secure to his property a paying interest +from the start. + +This scheme aroused a really unprecedented antagonism in the breasts +of Cowperwood's enemies. By the Arneel-Hand-Schryhart contingent +it was looked upon as nothing short of diabolical. The newspapers, +directed by such men as Haguenin, Hyssop, Ormonde Ricketts, and +Truman Leslie MacDonald (whose father was now dead, and whose +thoughts as editor of the Inquirer were almost solely directed +toward driving Cowperwood out of Chicago), began to shout, as a +last resort, in the interests of democracy. Seats for everybody +(on Cowperwood's lines), no more straps in the rush hours, three-cent +fares for workingmen, morning and evening, free transfers from all +of Cowperwood's lines north to west and west to north, twenty per +cent. of the gross income of his lines to be paid to the city. +The masses should be made cognizant of their individual rights and +privileges. Such a course, while decidedly inimical to Cowperwood's +interests at the present time, and as such strongly favored by the +majority of his opponents, had nevertheless its disturbing elements +to an ultra-conservative like Hosmer Hand. + +"I don't know about this, Norman," he remarked to Schryhart, on +one occasion. "I don't know about this. It's one thing to stir +up the public, but it's another to make them forget. This is a +restless, socialistic country, and Chicago is the very hotbed and +center of it. Still, if it will serve to trip him up I suppose +it will do for the present. The newspapers can probably smooth +it all over later. But I don't know." + +Mr. Hand was of that order of mind that sees socialism as a horrible +importation of monarchy-ridden Europe. Why couldn't the people +be satisfied to allow the strong, intelligent, God-fearing men of +the community to arrange things for them? Wasn't that what democracy +meant? Certainly it was--he himself was one of the strong. He +could not help distrusting all this radical palaver. Still, +anything to hurt Cowperwood--anything. + +Cowperwood was not slow to realize that public sentiment was now +in danger of being thoroughly crystallized against him by newspaper +agitation. Although his franchises would not expire--the large +majority of them--before January 1, 1903, yet if things went on +at this rate it would be doubtful soon whether ever again he would +be able to win another election by methods legitimate or illegitimate. +Hungry aldermen and councilmen might be venal and greedy enough +to do anything he should ask, provided he was willing to pay enough, +but even the thickest-hided, the most voracious and corrupt +politician could scarcely withstand the searching glare of publicity +and the infuriated rage of a possibly aroused public opinion. By +degrees this last, owing to the untiring efforts of the newspapers, +was being whipped into a wild foam. To come into council at this +time and ask for a twenty-year extension of franchises not destined +to expire for seven years was too much. It could not be done. +Even suborned councilmen would be unwilling to undertake it just +now. There are some things which even politically are impossible. + +To make matters worse, the twenty-year-franchise limit was really +not at all sufficient for his present needs. In order to bring +about the consolidation of his North and West surface lines, which +he was now proposing and on the strength of which he wished to +issue at least two hundred million dollars' worth of +one-hundred-dollar-six-per-cent. shares in place of the seventy +million dollars current of ten and twelve per cents., it was +necessary for him to secure a much more respectable term of years +than the brief one now permitted by the state legislature, even +providing that this latter could be obtained. + +"Peeble are not ferry much indrested in tees short-time frangizes," +observed Mr. Gotloeb once, when Cowperwood was talking the matter +over with him. He wanted Haeckelheimer & Co. to underwrite the +whole issue. "Dey are so insigure. Now if you couldt get, say, +a frangize for fifty or one hunnert years or something like dot +your stocks wouldt go off like hot cakes. I know where I couldt +dispose of fifty million dollars off dem in Cermany alone." + +He was most unctuous and pleading. + +Cowperwood understood this quite as well as Gotloeb, if not better. +He was not at all satisfied with the thought of obtaining a +beggarly twenty-year extension for his giant schemes when cities +like Philadelphia, Boston, New York, and Pittsburg were apparently +glad to grant their corporations franchises which would not expire +for ninety-nine years at the earliest, and in most cases were given +in perpetuity. This was the kind of franchise favored by the great +moneyed houses of New York and Europe, and which Gotloeb, and even +Addison, locally, were demanding. + +"It is certainly important that we get these franchises renewed +for fifty years," Addison used to say to him, and it was seriously +and disagreeably true. + +The various lights of Cowperwood's legal department, constantly +on the search for new legislative devices, were not slow to grasp +the import of the situation. It was not long before the resourceful +Mr. Joel Avery appeared with a suggestion. + +"Did you notice what the state legislature of New York is doing +in connection with the various local transit problems down there?" +asked this honorable gentleman of Cowperwood, one morning, ambling +in when announced and seating himself in the great presence. A +half-burned cigar was between his fingers, and a little round felt +hat looked peculiarly rakish above his sinister, intellectual, +constructive face and eyes. + +"No, I didn't," replied Cowperwood, who had actually noted and +pondered upon the item in question, but who did not care to say +so. "I saw something about it, but I didn't pay much attention +to it. What of it?" + +"Well, it plans to authorize a body of four or five men--one branch +in New York, one in Buffalo, I presume--to grant all new franchises +and extend old ones with the consent of the various local communities +involved. They are to fix the rate of compensation to be paid to +the state or the city, and the rates of fare. They can regulate +transfers, stock issues, and all that sort of thing. I was +thinking if at any time we find this business of renewing the +franchises too uncertain here we might go into the state legislature +and see what can be done about introducing a public-service +commission of that kind into this state. We are not the only +corporation that would welcome it. Of course, it would be better +if there were a general or special demand for it outside of +ourselves. It ought not to originate with us." + +He stared at Cowperwood heavily, the latter returning a reflective +gaze. + +"I'll think it over," he said. "There may be something in that." + +Henceforth the thought of instituting such a commission never left +Cowperwood's mind. It contained the germ of a solution--the +possibility of extending his franchises for fifty or even a hundred +years. + +This plan, as Cowperwood was subsequently to discover, was a thing +more or less expressly forbidden by the state constitution of +Illinois. The latter provided that no special or exclusive +privilege, immunity, or franchise whatsoever should be granted to +any corporation, association, or individual. Yet, "What is a +little matter like the constitution between friends, anyhow?" some +one had already asked. There are fads in legislation as well as +dusty pigeonholes in which phases of older law are tucked away and +forgotten. Many earlier ideals of the constitution-makers had +long since been conveniently obscured or nullified by decisions, +appeals to the federal government, appeals to the state government, +communal contracts, and the like--fine cobwebby figments, all, but +sufficient, just the same, to render inoperative the original +intention. Besides, Cowperwood had but small respect for either +the intelligence or the self-protective capacity of such men as +constituted the rural voting element of the state. From his lawyers +and from others he had heard innumerable droll stories of life in +the state legislature, and the state counties and towns--on the +bench, at the rural huskings where the state elections were won, +in country hotels, on country roads and farms. "One day as I was +getting on the train at Petunkey," old General Van Sickle, or Judge +Dickensheets, or ex-Judge Avery would begin--and then would follow +some amazing narration of rural immorality or dullness, or political +or social misconception. Of the total population of the state at +this time over half were in the city itself, and these he had +managed to keep in control. For the remaining million, divided +between twelve small cities and an agricultural population, he had +small respect. What did this handful of yokels amount to, anyhow? +--dull, frivoling, barn-dancing boors. + +The great state of Illinois--a territory as large as England proper +and as fertile as Egypt, bordered by a great lake and a vast river, +and with a population of over two million free-born Americans +--would scarcely seem a fit subject for corporate manipulation and +control. Yet a more trade-ridden commonwealth might not have been +found anywhere at this time within the entire length and breadth +of the universe. Cowperwood personally, though contemptuous of +the bucolic mass when regarded as individuals, had always been +impressed by this great community of his election. Here had come +Marquette and Joliet, La Salle and Hennepin, dreaming a way to the +Pacific. Here Lincoln and Douglas, antagonist and protagonist of +slavery argument, had contested; here had arisen "Joe" Smith, +propagator of that strange American dogma of the Latter-Day Saints. +What a state, Cowperwood sometimes thought; what a figment of the +brain, and yet how wonderful! He had crossed it often on his way +to St. Louis, to Memphis, to Denver, and had been touched by its +very simplicity--the small, new wooden towns, so redolent of +American tradition, prejudice, force, and illusion. The white-steepled +church, the lawn-faced, tree-shaded village streets, the long +stretches of flat, open country where corn grew in serried rows +or where in winter the snow bedded lightly--it all reminded him a +little of his own father and mother, who had been in many respects +suited to such a world as this. Yet none the less did he hesitate +to press on the measure which was to adjust his own future, to +make profitable his issue of two hundred million dollars' worth +of Union Traction, to secure him a fixed place in the financial +oligarchy of America and of the world. + +The state legislature at this time was ruled over by a small group +of wire-pulling, pettifogging, corporation-controlled individuals +who came up from the respective towns, counties, and cities of the +state, but who bore the same relation to the communities which +they represented and to their superiors and equals in and out of +the legislative halls at Springfield that men do to such allies +anywhere in any given field. Why do we call them pettifogging and +dismiss them? Perhaps they were pettifogging, but certainly no +more so than any other shrewd rat or animal that burrows its way +onward--and shall we say upward? The deepest controlling principle +which animated these individuals was the oldest and first, that +of self-preservation. Picture, for example, a common occurrence +--that of Senator John H. Southack, conversing with, perhaps, +Senator George Mason Wade, of Gallatin County, behind a legislative +door in one of the senate conference chambers toward the close of +a session--Senator Southack, blinking, buttonholing his well-dressed +colleague and drawing very near; Senator Wade, curious, confidential, +expectant (a genial, solid, experienced, slightly paunchy but +well-built Senator Wade--and handsome, too). + +"You know, George, I told you there would be something eventually +in the Quincy water-front improvement if it ever worked out. Well, +here it is. Ed Truesdale was in town yesterday." (This with a +knowing eye, as much as to say, "Mum's the word.") "Here's five +hundred; count it." + +A quick flashing out of some green and yellow bills from a vest +pocket, a light thumbing and counting on the part of Senator Wade. +A flare of comprehension, approval,gratitude, admiration, as +though to signify, "This is something like." "Thanks, John. I +had pretty near forgot all about it. Nice people, eh? If you see +Ed again give him my regards. When that Bellville contest comes +up let me know." + +Mr. Wade, being a good speaker, was frequently in request to stir +up the populace to a sense of pro or con in connection with some +legislative crisis impending, and it was to some such future +opportunity that he now pleasantly referred. O life, O politics, +O necessity, O hunger, O burning human appetite and desire on every +hand! + +Mr. Southack was an unobtrusive, pleasant, quiet man of the type +that would usually be patronized as rural and pettifogging by men +high in commercial affairs. He was none the less well fitted to +his task, a capable and diligent beneficiary and agent. He was +well dressed, middle-aged,--only forty-five--cool, courageous, +genial, with eyes that were material, but not cold or hard, and a +light, springy, energetic step and manner. A holder of some C. +W. & I. R.R. shares, a director of one of his local county banks, +a silent partner in the Effingham Herald, he was a personage in +his district, one much revered by local swains. Yet a more game +and rascally type was not to be found in all rural legislation. + +It was old General Van Sickle who sought out Southack, having +remembered him from his earlier legislative days. It was Avery +who conducted the negotiations. Primarily, in all state scheming +at Springfield, Senator Southack was supposed to represent the C. +W. I., one of the great trunk-lines traversing the state, and +incidentally connecting Chicago with the South, West, and East. +This road, having a large local mileage and being anxious to extend +its franchises in Chicago and elsewhere, was deep in state politics. +By a curious coincidence it was mainly financed by Haeckelheimer, +Gotloeb & Co., of New York, though Cowperwood's connection with +that concern was not as yet known. Going to Southack, who was +the Republican whip in the senate, Avery proposed that he, in +conjunction with Judge Dickensheets and one Gilson Bickel, counsel +for the C. W. I., should now undertake to secure sufficient support +in the state senate and house for a scheme introducing the New +York idea of a public-service commission into the governing +machinery of the state of Illinois. This measure, be it noted, +was to be supplemented by one very interesting and important little +proviso to the effect that all franchise-holding corporations +should hereby, for a period of fifty years from the date of the +enactment of the bill into law, be assured of all their rights, +privileges, and immunities--including franchises, of course. This +was justified on the ground that any such radical change as that +involved in the introduction of a public-service commission might +disturb the peace and well-being of corporations with franchises +which still had years to run. + +Senator Southack saw nothing very wrong with this idea, though he +naturally perceived what it was all about and whom it was truly +designed to protect. + +"Yes," he said, succinctly, "I see the lay of that land, but what +do I get out of it?" + +"Fifty thousand dollars for yourself if it's successful, ten +thousand if it isn't--provided you make an honest effort; two +thousand dollars apiece for any of the boys who see fit to help +you if we win. Is that perfectly satisfactory?" + +"Perfectly," replied Senator Southack. + + + + +Chapter LV + + + +Cowperwood and the Governor + +A Public-service-commission law might, ipso facto, have been quietly +passed at this session, if the arbitrary franchise-extending proviso +had not been introduced, and this on the thin excuse that so novel +a change in the working scheme of the state government might bring +about hardship to some. This redounded too obviously to the benefit +of one particular corporation. The newspaper men--as thick as +flies about the halls of the state capitol at Springfield, and +essentially watchful and loyal to their papers--were quick to sense +the true state of affairs. Never were there such hawks as +newspapermen. These wretches (employed by sniveling, mud-snouting +newspapers of the opposition) were not only in the councils of +politicians, in the pay of rival corporations, in the confidence +of the governor, in the secrets of the senators and local +representatives, but were here and there in one another's confidence. +A piece of news--a rumor, a dream, a fancy--whispered by Senator +Smith to Senator Jones, or by Representative Smith to Representative +Jones, and confided by him in turn to Charlie White, of the Globe, +or Eddie Burns, of the Democrat, would in turn be communicated to +Robert Hazlitt, of the Press, or Harry Emonds, of the Transcript. + +All at once a disturbing announcement in one or other of the papers, +no one knowing whence it came. Neither Senator Smith nor Senator +Jones had told any one. No word of the confidence imposed in +Charlie White or Eddie Burns had ever been breathed. But there +you were--the thing was in the papers, the storm of inquiry, +opinion, opposition was on. No one knew, no one was to blame, but +it was on, and the battle had henceforth to be fought in the open. + +Consider also the governor who presided at this time in the executive +chamber at Springfield. He was a strange, tall, dark, osseous man +who, owing to the brooding, melancholy character of his own +disposition, had a checkered and a somewhat sad career behind him. +Born in Sweden, he bad been brought to America as a child, and +allowed or compelled to fight his own way upward under all the +grinding aspects of poverty. Owing to an energetic and indomitable +temperament, he had through years of law practice and public labors +of various kinds built up for himself a following among Chicago +Swedes which amounted to adoration. He had been city tax-collector, +city surveyor, district attorney, and for six or eight years a +state circuit judge. In all these capacities he had manifested a +tendency to do the right as he saw it and play fair--qualities +which endeared him to the idealistic. Honest, and with a hopeless +brooding sympathy for the miseries of the poor, he had as circuit +judge, and also as district attorney, rendered various decisions +which had made him very unpopular with the rich and powerful +--decisions in damage cases, fraud cases, railroad claim cases, +where the city or the state was seeking to oust various powerful +railway corporations from possession of property--yards, +water-frontages, and the like, to which they had no just claim. +At the same time the populace, reading the news items of his doings +and hearing him speak on various and sundry occasions, conceived +a great fancy for him. He was primarily soft-hearted, sweet-minded, +fiery, a brilliant orator, a dynamic presence. In addition he was +woman-hungry--a phase which homely, sex-starved intellectuals the +world over will understand, to the shame of a lying age, that +because of quixotic dogma belies its greatest desire, its greatest +sorrow, its greatest joy. All these factors turned an ultra-conservative +element in the community against him, and he was considered +dangerous. At the same time he had by careful economy and investment +built up a fair sized fortune. Recently, however, owing to the +craze for sky-scrapers, he had placed much of his holdings in a +somewhat poorly constructed and therefore unprofitable office +building. Because of this error financial wreck was threatening +him. Even now he was knocking at the doors of large bonding +companies for assistance. + +This man, in company with the antagonistic financial element and +the newspapers, constituted, as regards Cowperwood's +public-service-commission scheme, a triumvirate of difficulties +not easy to overcome. The newspapers, in due time, catching wind +of the true purport of the plan, ran screaming to their readers +with the horrible intelligence. In the offices of Schryhart, +Arneel, Hand, and Merrill, as well as in other centers of finance, +there was considerable puzzling over the situation, and then a +shrewd, intelligent deduction was made. + +"Do you see what he's up to, Hosmer?" inquired Schryhart of Hand. +"He sees that we have him scotched here in Chicago. As things +stand now he can't go into the city council and ask for a franchise +for more than twenty years under the state law, and he can't do +that for three or four years yet, anyhow. His franchises don't +expire soon enough. He knows that by the time they do expire we +will have public sentiment aroused to such a point that no council, +however crooked it may be, will dare to give him what he asks +unless he is willing to make a heavy return to the city. If he +does that it will end his scheme of selling any two hundred million +dollars of Union Traction at six per cent. The market won't back +him up. He can't pay twenty per cent. to the city and give +universal transfers and pay six per cent. on two hundred million +dollars, and everybody knows it. He has a fine scheme of making +a cool hundred million out of this. Well, he can't do it. We +must get the newspapers to hammer this legislative scheme of his +to death. When he comes into the local council he must pay twenty +or thirty per cent. of the gross receipts of his roads to the city. +He must give free transfers from every one of his lines to every +other one. Then we have him. I dislike to see socialistic ideas +fostered, but it can't be helped. We have to do it. If we ever +get him out of here we can hush up the newspapers, and the public +will forget about it; at least we can hope so." + +In the mean time the governor had heard the whisper of "boodle" +--a word of the day expressive of a corrupt legislative fund. Not +at all a small-minded man, nor involved in the financial campaign +being waged against Cowperwood, nor inclined to be influenced +mentally or emotionally by superheated charges against the latter, +he nevertheless speculated deeply. In a vague way he sensed the +dreams of Cowperwood. The charge of seducing women so frequently +made against the street-railway magnate, so shocking to the yoked +conventionalists, did not disturb him at all. Back of the onward +sweep of the generations he himself sensed the mystic Aphrodite +and her magic. He realized that Cowperwood had traveled fast--that +he was pressing to the utmost a great advantage in the face of +great obstacles. At the same time he knew that the present street-car +service of Chicago was by no means bad. Would he be proving +unfaithful to the trust imposed on him by the great electorate of +Illinois if he were to advantage Cowperwood's cause? Must he not +rather in the sight of all men smoke out the animating causes +here--greed, over-weening ambition, colossal self-interest as +opposed to the selflessness of a Christian ideal and of a democratic +theory of government? + +Life rises to a high plane of the dramatic, and hence of the +artistic, whenever and wherever in the conflict regarding material +possession there enters a conception of the ideal. It was this +that lit forever the beacon fires of Troy, that thundered eternally +in the horses' hoofs at Arbela and in the guns at Waterloo. Ideals +were here at stake--the dreams of one man as opposed perhaps to +the ultimate dreams of a city or state or nation--the grovelings +and wallowings of a democracy slowly, blindly trying to stagger +to its feet. In this conflict--taking place in an inland +cottage-dotted state where men were clowns and churls, dancing +fiddlers at country fairs--were opposed, as the governor saw it, +the ideals of one man and the ideals of men. + +Governor Swanson decided after mature deliberation to veto the +bill. Cowperwood, debonair as ever, faithful as ever to his logic +and his conception of individuality, was determined that no stone +should be left unturned that would permit him to triumph, that +would carry him finally to the gorgeous throne of his own construction. +Having first engineered the matter through the legislature by a +tortuous process, fired upon at every step by the press, he next +sent various individuals--state legislators, representatives of +the C. W. & I., members of outside corporations to see the governor, +but Swanson was adamant. He did not see how he could conscientiously +sanction the bill. Finally, one day, as he was seated in his +Chicago business office--a fateful chamber located in the troublesome +building which was subsequently to wreck his fortune and which was +the raison d'etre of a present period of care and depression--enter +the smug, comfortable presence of Judge Nahum Dickensheets, at +present senior counsel of the North Chicago Street Railway. He +was a very mountain of a man physically--smooth-faced, agreeably +clothed, hard and yet ingratiating of eye, a thinker, a reasoner. +Swanson knew much of him by reputation and otherwise, although +personally they were no more than speaking acquaintances. + +"How are you, Governor? I'm glad to see you again. I heard you +were back in Chicago. I see by the morning papers that you have +that Southack public-service bill up before you. I thought I would +come over and have a few words with you about it if you have no +objection. I've been trying to get down to Springfield for the +last three weeks to have a little chat with you before you reached +a conclusion one way or the other. Do you mind if I inquire whether +you have decided to veto it?" + +The ex-judge, faintly perfumed, clean and agreeable, carried in +his hand a large-sized black hand-satchel which he put down beside +him on the floor. + +"Yes, Judge," replied Swanson, "I've practically decided to veto +it. I can see no practical reason for supporting it. As I look +at it now, it's specious and special, not particularly called for +or necessary at this time." + +The governor talked with a slight Swedish accent, intellectual, +individual. + +A long, placid, philosophic discussion of all the pros and cons +of the situation followed. The governor was tired, distrait, but +ready to listen in a tolerant way to more argument along a line +with which he was already fully familiar. He knew, of course, +that Dickensheets was counsel for the North Chicago Street Railway +Company. + +"I'm very glad to have heard what you have to say, Judge," finally +commented the governor. I don't want you to think I haven't given +this matter serious thought--I have. I know most of the things +that have been done down at Springfield. Mr. Cowperwood is an +able man; I don't charge any more against him than I do against +twenty other agencies that are operating down there at this very +moment. I know what his difficulties are. I can hardly be accused +of sympathizing with his enemies, for they certainly do not +sympathize with me. I am not even listening to the newspapers. +This is a matter of faith in democracy--a difference in ideals +between myself and many other men. I haven't vetoed the bill yet. +I don't say that something may not arise to make me sign it. My +present intention, unless I hear something much more favorable in +its behalf than I have already heard, is to veto it. + +"Governor," said Dickensheets, rising, "let me thank you for your +courtesy. I would be the last person in the world to wish to +influence you outside the line of your private convictions and +your personal sense of fair play. At the same time I have tried +to make plain to you how essential it is, how only fair and right, +that this local street-railway-franchise business should be removed +out of the realm of sentiment, emotion, public passion, envy, +buncombe, and all the other influences that are at work to frustrate +and make difficult the work of Mr. Cowperwood. All envy, I tell +you. His enemies are willing to sacrifice every principle of +justice and fair play to see him eliminated. That sums it up. + +"That may all be true," replied Swanson. "Just the same, there +is another principle involved here which you do not seem to see +or do not care to consider--the right of the people under the state +constitution to a consideration, a revaluation, of their contracts +at the time and in the manner agreed upon under the original +franchise. What you propose is sumptuary legislation; it makes +null and void an agreement between the people and the street-railway +companies at a time when the people have a right to expect a full +and free consideration of this matter aside from state legislative +influence and control. To persuade the state legislature, by +influence or by any other means, to step in at this time and +interfere is unfair. The propositions involved in those bills +should be referred to the people at the next election for approval +or not, just as they see fit. That is the way this matter should +be arranged. It will not do to come into the legislature and +influence or buy votes, and then expect me to write my signature +under the whole matter as satisfactory. + +Swanson was not heated or antipathetic. He was cool, firm, +well-intentioned. + +Dickensheets passed his hand over a wide, high temple. He seemed +to be meditating something--some hitherto untried statement or +course of action. + +Well, Governor," he repeated, "I want to thank you, anyhow. You +have been exceedingly kind. By the way, I see you have a large, +roomy safe here." He had picked up the bag he was carrying. "I +wonder if I might leave this here for a day or two in your care? +It contains some papers that I do not wish to carry into the country +with me. Would you mind locking it up in your safe and letting +me have it when I send for it?" + +"With pleasure," replied the governor. + +He took it, placed it in lower storage space, and closed and locked +the door. The two men parted with a genial hand-shake. The +governor returned to his meditations, the judge hurried to catch +a car. + +About eleven o'clock the next morning Swanson was still working +in his office, worrying greatly over some method whereby he could +raise one hundred thousand dollars to defray interest charges, +repairs, and other payments, on a structure that was by no means +meeting expenses and was hence a drain. At this juncture his +office door opened, and his very youthful office-boy presented him +the card of F. A. Cowperwood. The governor had never seen him +before. Cowperwood entered brisk, fresh, forceful. He was as +crisp as a new dollar bill--as clean, sharp, firmly limned. + +"Governor Swanson, I believe?" + +"Yes, sir." + +The two were scrutinizing each other defensively. + +"I am Mr. Cowperwood. I come to have a very few words with you. +I will take very little of your time. I do not wish to go over +any of the arguments that have been gone over before. I am +satisfied that you know all about them." + +"Yes, I had a talk with Judge Dickensheets yesterday." + +"Just so, Governor. Knowing all that you do, permit me to put one +more matter before you. I know that you are, comparatively, a +poor man--that every dollar you have is at present practically +tied in this building. I know of two places where you have applied +for a loan of one hundred thousand dollars and have been refused +because you haven't sufficient security to offer outside of this +building, which is mortgaged up to its limit as it stands. The +men, as you must know, who are fighting you are fighting me. I +am a scoundrel because I am selfish and ambitious--a materialist. +You are not a scoundrel, but a dangerous person because you are +an idealist. Whether you veto this bill or not, you will never +again be elected Governor of Illinois if the people who are fighting +me succeed, as they will succeed, in fighting you." + +Swanson's dark eyes burned illuminatively. He nodded his head in +assent. + +"Governor, I have come here this morning to bribe you, if I can. +I do not agree with your ideals; in the last analysis I do not +believe that they will work. I am sure I do not believe in most +of the things that you believe in. Life is different at bottom +perhaps from what either you or I may think. Just the same, as +compared with other men, I sympathize with you. I will loan you +that one hundred thousand dollars and two or three or four hundred +thousand dollars more besides if you wish. You need never pay me +a dollar--or you can if you wish. Suit yourself. In that black +bag which Judge Dickensheets brought here yesterday, and which is +in your safe, is three hundred thousand dollars in cash. He did +not have the courage to mention it. Sign the bill and let me beat +the men who are trying to beat me. I will support you in the +future with any amount of money or influence that I can bring to +bear in any political contest you may choose to enter, state or +national." + +Cowperwood's eyes glowed like a large, genial collie's. There was +a suggestion of sympathetic appeal in them, rich and deep, and, +even more than that, a philosophic perception of ineffable things. +Swanson arose. "You really don't mean to say that you are trying +to bribe me openly, do you?" he inquired. In spite of a conventional +impulse to burst forth in moralistic denunciation, solemnly phrased, +he was compelled for the moment to see the other man's viewpoint. +They were working in different directions, going different ways, +to what ultimate end? + +"Mr. Cowperwood," continued the governor, his face a physiognomy +out of Goya, his eye alight with a kind of understanding sympathy, +"I suppose I ought to resent this, but I can't. I see your point +of view. I'm sorry, but I can't help you nor myself. My political +belief, my ideals, compel me to veto this bill; when I forsake +these I am done politically with myself. I may not be elected +governor again, but that does not matter, either. I could use +your money, but I won't. I shall have to bid you good morning." + +He moved toward the safe, slowly, opened it, took out the bag and +brought it over. + +"You must take that with you," he added. + +The two men looked at each other a moment curiously, sadly--the +one with a burden of financial, political, and moral worry on his +spirit, the other with an unconquerable determination not to be +worsted even in defeat. + +"Governor," concluded Cowperwood, in the most genial, contented, +undisturbed voice, "you will live to see another legislature pass +and another governor sign some such bill. It will not be done +this session, apparently, but it will be done. I am not through, +because my case is right and fair. Just the same, after you have +vetoed the bill, come and see me, and I will loan you that one +hundred thousand if you want it." + +Cowperwood went out. Swanson vetoed the bill. It is on record +that subsequently he borrowed one hundred thousand dollars from +Cowperwood to stay him from ruin. + + + + +Chapter LVI + + + +The Ordeal of Berenice + +At the news that Swanson had refused to sign the bill and that the +legislature lacked sufficient courage to pass it over his veto +both Schryhart and Hand literally rubbed their hands in comfortable +satisfaction. + +"Well, Hosmer," said Schryhart the next day, when they met at their +favorite club--the Union League--"it looks as though we were making +some little progress, after all, doesn't it? Our friend didn't +succeed in turning that little trick, did he?" + +He beamed almost ecstatically upon his solid companion. + +"Not this time. I wonder what move he will decide to make next." + +"I don't see very well what it can be. He knows now that he can't +get his franchises without a compromise that will eat into his +profits, and if that happens he can't sell his Union Traction +stock. This legislative scheme of his must have cost him all of +three hundred thousand dollars, and what has he to show for it? +The new legislature, unless I'm greatly mistaken, will be afraid +to touch anything in connection with him. It's hardly likely that +any of the Springfield politicians will want to draw the fire of +the newspapers again." + +Schryhart felt very powerful, imposing--sleek, indeed--now that +his theory of newspaper publicity as a cure was apparently beginning +to work. Hand, more saturnine, more responsive to the uncertainty +of things mundane--the shifty undercurrents that are perpetually +sapping and mining below--was agreeable, but not sure. Perhaps so. + +In regard to his Eastern life during this interlude, Cowperwood +had been becoming more and more keenly alive to the futility of +the attempt to effect a social rescue for Aileen. "What was the +use?" he often asked himself, as he contemplated her movements, +thoughts, plans, as contrasted with the natural efficiency, taste, +grace, and subtlety of a woman like Berenice. He felt that the +latter could, if she would, smooth over in an adroit way all the +silly social antagonisms which were now afflicting him. It was a +woman's game, he frequently told himself, and would never be +adjusted till he had the woman. + +Simultaneously Aileen, looking at the situation from her own point +of view and nonplussed by the ineffectiveness of mere wealth when +not combined with a certain social something which she did not +appear to have, was, nevertheless, unwilling to surrender her +dream. What was it, she asked herself over and over, that made +this great difference between women and women? The question contained +its own answer, but she did not know that. She was still +good-looking--very--and an adept in self-ornamentation, after her +manner and taste. So great had been the newspaper palaver regarding +the arrival of a new multimillionaire from the West and the palace +he was erecting that even tradesmen, clerks, and hall-boys knew +of her. Almost invariably, when called upon to state her name in +such quarters, she was greeted by a slight start of recognition, +a swift glance of examination, whispers, even open comment. That +was something. Yet how much more, and how different were those +rarefied reaches of social supremacy to which popular repute bears +scarcely any relationship at all. How different, indeed? From +what Cowperwood had said in Chicago she had fancied that when they +took up their formal abode in New York he would make an attempt +to straighten out his life somewhat, to modify the number of his +indifferent amours and to present an illusion of solidarity and +unity. Yet, now that they had actually arrived, she noticed that +he was more concerned with his heightened political and financial +complications in Illinois and with his art-collection than he was +with what might happen to be going on in the new home or what could +be made to happen there. As in the days of old, she was constantly +puzzled by his persistent evenings out and his sudden appearances +and disappearances. Yet, determine as she might, rage secretly +or openly as she would, she could not cure herself of the infection +of Cowperwood, the lure that surrounded and substantiated a mind +and spirit far greater than any other she had ever known. Neither +honor, virtue, consistent charity, nor sympathy was there, but +only a gay, foamy, unterrified sufficiency and a creative, +constructive sense of beauty that, like sunlit spray, glowing with +all the irradiative glories of the morning, danced and fled, spun +driftwise over a heavy sea of circumstance. Life, however dark +and somber, could never apparently cloud his soul. Brooding and +idling in the wonder palace of his construction, Aileen could see +what he was like. The silver fountain in the court of orchids, +the peach-like glow of the pink marble chamber, with its birds +and flowers, the serried brilliance of his amazing art-collections +were all like him, were really the color of his soul. To think +that after all she was not the one to bind him to subjection, to +hold him by golden yet steely threads of fancy to the hem of her +garment! To think that he should no longer walk, a slave of his +desire, behind the chariot of her spiritual and physical superiority. +Yet she could not give up. + +By this time Cowperwood had managed through infinite tact and a +stoic disregard of his own aches and pains to re-establish at least +a temporary working arrangement with the Carter household. To +Mrs. Carter he was still a Heaven-sent son of light. Actually in +a mournful way she pleaded for Cowperwood, vouching for his +disinterestedness and long-standing generosity. Berenice, on the +other hand, was swept between her craving for a great state for +herself--luxury, power--and her desire to conform to the current +ethics and morals of life. Cowperwood was married, and because +of his attitude of affection for her his money was tainted. She +had long speculated on his relation to Aileen, the basis of their +differences, had often wondered why neither she nor her mother had +ever been introduced. What type of woman was the second Mrs. +Cowperwood? Beyond generalities Cowperwood had never mentioned +her. Berenice actually thought to seek her out in some inconspicuous +way, but, as it chanced, one night her curiosity was rewarded +without effort. She was at the opera with friends, and her escort +nudged her arm. + +"Have you noticed Box 9--the lady in white satin with the green +lace shawl?" + +"Yes." Berenice raised her glasses. + +"Mrs. Frank Algernon Cowperwood, the wife of the Chicago millionaire. +They have just built that house at 68th Street. He has part lease +of number 9, I believe." + +Berenice almost started, but retained her composure, giving merely +an indifferent glance. A little while after, she adjusted her +glasses carefully and studied Mrs. Cowperwood. She noted curiously +that Aileen's hair was somewhat the color of her own--more carroty +red. She studied her eyes, which were slightly ringed, her smooth +cheeks and full mouth, thickened somewhat by drinking and dissipation. +Aileen was good-looking, she thought--handsome in a material way, +though so much older than herself. Was it merely age that was +alienating Cowperwood, or was it some deep-seated intellectual +difference? Obviously Mrs. Cowperwood was well over forty--a fact +which did not give Berenice any sense of satisfaction or of +advantage. She really did not care enough. It did occur to her, +however, that this woman whom she was observing had probably given +the best years of her life to Cowperwood--the brilliant years of +her girlhood. And now he was tired of her! There were small +carefully powdered lines at the tails of Aileen's eyes and at the +corners of her mouth. At the same time she seemed preternaturally +gay, kittenish, spoiled. With her were two men--one a well-known +actor, sinisterly handsome, a man with a brutal, unclean reputation, +the other a young social pretender--both unknown to Berenice. Her +knowledge was to come from her escort, a loquacious youth, more +or less versed, as it happened, in the gay life of the city. + +"I hear that she is creating quite a stir in Bohemia," he observed. +"If she expects to enter society it's a poor way to begin, don't +you think?" + +"Do you know that she expects to?" + +"All the usual signs are out--a box here, a house on Fifth Avenue." + +This study of Aileen puzzled and disturbed Berenice a little. +Nevertheless, she felt immensely superior. Her soul seemed to +soar over the plain Aileen inhabited. The type of the latter's +escorts suggested error--a lack of social discrimination. Because +of the high position he had succeeded in achieving Cowperwood was +entitled, no doubt, to be dissatisfied. His wife had not kept +pace with him, or, rather, had not eluded him in his onward flight +--had not run swiftly before, like a winged victory. Berenice +reflected that if she were dealing with such a man he should never +know her truly--he should be made to wonder and to doubt. Lines +of care and disappointment should never mar her face. She would +scheme and dream and conceal and evade. He should dance attendance, +whoever he was. + +Nevertheless, here she herself was, at twenty-two, unmarried, her +background insecure, the very ground on which she walked treacherous. +Braxmar knew, and Beales Chadsey, and Cowperwood. At least three +or four of her acquaintances must have been at the Waldorf on that +fatal night. How long would it be before others became aware? She +tried eluding her mother, Cowperwood, and the situation generally +by freely accepting more extended invitations and by trying to see +whether there was not some opening for her in the field of art. +She thought of painting and essayed several canvases which she +took to dealers. The work was subtle, remote, fanciful--a snow +scene with purple edges; a thinking satyr, iron-like in his +heaviness, brooding over a cloudy valley; a lurking devil peering +at a praying Marguerite; a Dutch interior inspired by Mrs. Batjer, +and various dancing figures. Phlegmatic dealers of somber mien +admitted some promise, but pointed out the difficulty of sales. +Beginners were numerous. Art was long. If she went on, of +course. . . . Let them see other things. She turned her thoughts +to dancing. + +This art in its interpretative sense was just being introduced +into America, a certain Althea Baker having created a good deal +of stir in society by this means. With the idea of duplicating +or surpassing the success of this woman Berenice conceived a dance +series of her own. One was to be "The Terror"--a nymph dancing +in the spring woods, but eventually pursued and terrorized by a +faun; another,"The Peacock," a fantasy illustrative of proud +self-adulation; another, "The Vestal," a study from Roman choric +worship. After spending considerable time at Pocono evolving +costumes, poses, and the like, Berenice finally hinted at the plan +to Mrs. Batjer, declaring that she would enjoy the artistic outlet +it would afford, and indicating at the same time that it might +provide the necessary solution of a problem of ways and means. + +"Why, Bevy, how you talk!" commented Mrs. Batjer. "And with your +possibilities. Why don't you marry first, and do your dancing +afterward? You might compel a certain amount of attention that +way." + +"Because of hubby? How droll! Whom would you suggest that I marry +at once?" + +"Oh, when it comes to that--" replied Mrs. Batjer, with a slight +reproachful lift in her voice, and thinking of Kilmer Duelma. +"But surely your need isn't so pressing. If you were to take up +professional dancing I might have to cut you afterward--particularly +if any one else did." + +She smiled the sweetest, most sensible smile. Mrs. Batjer accompanied +her suggestions nearly always with a slight sniff and cough. +Berenice could see that the mere fact of this conversation made a +slight difference. In Mrs. Batjer's world poverty was a dangerous +topic. The mere odor of it suggested a kind of horror--perhaps +the equivalent of error or sin. Others, Berenice now suspected, +would take affright even more swiftly. + +Subsequent to this, however, she made one slight investigation of +those realms that govern professional theatrical engagements. It +was a most disturbing experience. The mere color and odor of the +stuffy offices, the gauche, material attendants, the impossible +aspirants and participants in this make-believe world! The crudeness! +The effrontery! The materiality! The sensuality! It came to her +as a sickening breath and for the moment frightened her. What +would become of refinement there? What of delicacy? How could one +rise and sustain an individual dignity and control in such a world +as this? + +Cowperwood was now suggesting as a binding link that he should buy +a home for them in Park Avenue, where such social functions as +would be of advantage to Berenice and in some measure to himself +as an occasional guest might be indulged in. Mrs. Carter, a fool +of comfort, was pleased to welcome this idea. It promised to give +her absolute financial security for the future. + +"I know how it is with you, Frank," she declared. "I know you +need some place that you can call a home. The whole difficulty +will be with Bevy. Ever since that miserable puppy made those +charges against me I haven't been able to talk to her at all. She +doesn't seem to want to do anything I suggest. You have much more +influence with her than I have. If you explain, it may be all +right." + +Instantly Cowperwood saw an opportunity. Intensely pleased with +this confession of weakness on the part of the mother, he went to +Berenice, but by his usual method of indirect direction. + +"You know, Bevy," he said, one afternoon when he found her alone, +"I have been wondering if it wouldn't be better if I bought a large +house for you and your mother here in New York, where you and she +could do entertaining on a large scale. Since I can't spend my +money on myself, I might as well spend it on some one who would +make an interesting use of it. You might include me as an uncle +or father's cousin or something of that sort," he added, lightly. + +Berenice, who saw quite clearly the trap he was setting for her, +was nonplussed. At the same time she could not help seeing that +a house, if it were beautifully furnished, would be an interesting +asset. People in society loved fixed, notable dwellings; she had +observed that. What functions could not be held if only her +mother's past were not charged against her! That was the great +difficulty. It was almost an Arabian situation, heightened by the +glitter of gold. And Cowperwood was always so diplomatic. He +came forward with such a bland, engaging smile. His hands were +so shapely and seeking. + +"A house such as you speak of would enlarge the debt beyond payment, +I presume," she remarked, sardonically and with a sad, almost +contemptuous gesture. Cowperwood realized how her piercing intellect +was following his shifty trail, and winced. She must see that her +fate was in his hands, but oh! if she would only surrender, how +swiftly every dollar of his vast fortune should be piled humbly at +her feet. She should have her heart's desire, if money would buy +it. She could say to him go, and he would go; come, and he would +come. + +"Berenice," he said, getting up, "I know what you think. You fancy +I am trying to further my own interests in this way, but I'm not. +I wouldn't compromise you ultimately for all the wealth of India. +I have told you where I stand. Every dollar that I have is yours +to do with as you choose on any basis that you may care to name. +I have no future outside of you, none except art. I do not expect +you to marry me. Take all that I have. Wipe society under your +feet. Don't think that I will ever charge it up as a debt. I +won't. I want you to hold your own. Just answer me one question; +I won't ever ask another." + +"Yes?" + +"If I were single now, and you were not in love or married, would +you consider me at all?" + +His eyes pleaded as never had they pleaded before. + +She started, looked concerned, severe, then relaxed as suddenly. +"Let me see," she said, with a slight brightening of the eyes and +a toss of her head. "That is a second cousin to a proposal, isn't +it? You have no right to make it. You aren't single, and aren't +likely to be. Why should I try to read the future?" + +She walked indifferently out of the room, and Cowperwood stayed a +moment to think. Obviously he had triumphed in a way. She had +not taken great offense. She must like him and would marry him +if only... + +Only Aileen. + +And now he wished more definitely and forcefully than ever that +he were really and truly free. He felt that if ever he wished to +attain Berenice he must persuade Aileen to divorce him. + + + + +Chapter LVII + + + +Aileen's Last Card + +It was not until some little time after they were established in +the new house that Aileen first came upon any evidence of the +existence of Berenice Fleming. In a general way she assumed that +there were women--possibly some of whom she had known--Stephanie, +Mrs. Hand, Florence Cochrane, or later arrivals--yet so long as +they were not obtruded on her she permitted herself the semi-comforting +thought that things were not as bad as they might be. So long, +indeed, as Cowperwood was genuinely promiscuous, so long as he +trotted here and there, not snared by any particular siren, she +could not despair, for, after all, she had ensnared him and held +him deliciously--without variation, she believed, for all of ten +years--a feat which no other woman had achieved before or after. +Rita Sohlberg might have succeeded--the beast! How she hated the +thought of Rita! By this time, however, Cowperwood was getting on +in years. The day must come when he would be less keen for +variability, or, at least, would think it no longer worth while +to change. If only he did not find some one woman, some Circe, +who would bind and enslave him in these Later years as she had +herself done in his earlier ones all might yet be well. At the +same time she lived in daily terror of a discovery which was soon +to follow. + +She had gone out one day to pay a call on some one to whom Rhees +Grier, the Chicago sculptor, had given her an introduction. +Crossing Central Park in one of the new French machines which +Cowperwood had purchased for her indulgence, her glance wandered +down a branch road to where another automobile similar to her own +was stalled. It was early in the afternoon, at which time Cowperwood +was presumably engaged in Wall Street. Yet there he was, and with +him two women, neither of whom, in the speed of passing, could +Aileen quite make out. She had her car halted and driven to within +seeing-distance behind a clump of bushes. A chauffeur whom she +did not know was tinkering at a handsome machine, while on the +grass near by stood Cowperwood and a tall, slender girl with red +hair somewhat like Aileen's own. Her expression was aloof, poetic, +rhapsodical. Aileen could not analyze it, but it fixed her attention +completely. In the tonneau sat an elderly lady, whom Aileen at +once assumed to be the girl's mother. Who were they? What was +Cowperwood doing here in the Park at this hour? Where were they +going? With a horrible retch of envy she noted upon Cowperwood's +face a smile the like and import of which she well knew. How often +she had seen it years and years before! Having escaped detection, +she ordered her chauffeur to follow the car, which soon started, +at a safe distance. She saw Cowperwood and the two ladies put +down at one of the great hotels, and followed them into the +dining-room, where, from behind a screen, after the most careful +manoeuvering, she had an opportunity of studying them at her +leisure. She drank in every detail of Berenice's face--the +delicately pointed chin, the clear, fixed blue eyes, the straight, +sensitive nose and tawny hair. Calling the head waiter, she +inquired the names of the two women, and in return for a liberal +tip was informed at once. "Mrs. Ira Carter, I believe, and her +daughter, Miss Fleming, Miss Berenice Fleming. Mrs. Carter was +Mrs. Fleming once." Aileen followed them out eventually, and in +her own car pursued them to their door, into which Cowperwood also +disappeared. The next day, by telephoning the apartment to make +inquiry, she learned that they actually lived there. After a few +days of brooding she employed a detective, and learned that +Cowperwood was a constant visitor at the Carters', that the machine +in which they rode was his maintained at a separate garage, and +that they were of society truly. Aileen would never have followed +the clue so vigorously had it not been for the look she had seen +Cowperwood fix on the girl in the Park and in the restaurant--an +air of soul-hunger which could not be gainsaid. + +Let no one ridicule the terrors of unrequited love. Its tentacles +are cancerous, its grip is of icy death. Sitting in her boudoir +immediately after these events, driving, walking, shopping, calling +on the few with whom she had managed to scrape an acquaintance, +Aileen thought morning, noon, and night of this new woman. The +pale, delicate face haunted her. What were those eyes, so remote +in their gaze, surveying? Love? Cowperwood? Yes! Yes! Gone in a +flash, and permanently, as it seemed to Aileen, was the value of +this house, her dream of a new social entrance. And she had already +suffered so much; endured so much. Cowperwood being absent for a +fortnight, she moped in her room, sighed, raged, and then began +to drink. Finally she sent for an actor who had once paid attention +to her in Chicago, and whom she had later met here in the circle +of the theaters. She was not so much burning with lust as determined +in her drunken gloom that she would have revenge. For days there +followed an orgy, in which wine, bestiality, mutual recrimination, +hatred, and despair were involved. Sobering eventually, she +wondered what Cowperwood would think of her now if he knew this? +Could he ever love her any more? Could he even tolerate her? But +what did he care? It served him right, the dog! She would show +him, she would wreck his dream, she would make her own life a +scandal, and his too! She would shame him before all the world. +He should never have a divorce! He should never be able to marry +a girl like that and leave her alone--never, never, never! When +Cowperwood returned she snarled at him without vouchsafing an +explanation. + +He suspected at once that she had been spying upon his manoeuvers. +Moreover, he did not fail to notice her heavy eyes, superheated +cheeks, and sickly breath. Obviously she had abandoned her dream +of a social victory of some kind, and was entering on a career of +what--debauchery? Since coming to New York she had failed utterly, +he thought, to make any single intelligent move toward her social +rehabilitation. The banal realms of art and the stage, with which +in his absence or neglect she had trifled with here, as she had +done in Chicago, were worse than useless; they were destructive. +He must have a long talk with her one of these days, must confess +frankly to his passion for Berenice, and appeal to her sympathy +and good sense. What scenes would follow! Yet she might succumb, +at that. Despair, pride, disgust might move her. Besides, he +could now bestow upon her a very large fortune. She could go to +Europe or remain here and live in luxury. He would always remain +friendly with her--helpful, advisory--if she would permit it. + +The conversation which eventually followed on this topic was of +such stuff as dreams are made of. It sounded hollow and unnatural +within the walls where it took place. Consider the great house +in upper Fifth Avenue, its magnificent chambers aglow, of a stormy +Sunday night. Cowperwood was lingering in the city at this time, +busy with a group of Eastern financiers who were influencing his +contest in the state legislature of Illinois. Aileen was momentarily +consoled by the thought that for him perhaps love might, after +all, be a thing apart--a thing no longer vital and soul-controlling. +To-night he was sitting in the court of orchids, reading a book +--the diary of Cellini, which some one had recommended to him +--stopping to think now and then of things in Chicago or Springfield, +or to make a note. Outside the rain was splashing in torrents on +the electric-lighted asphalt of Fifth Avenue--the Park opposite a +Corot-like shadow. Aileen was in the music-room strumming +indifferently. She was thinking of times past--Lynde, from whom +she had not heard in half a year; Watson Skeet, the sculptor, who +was also out of her ken at present. When Cowperwood was in the +city and in the house she was accustomed from habit to remain +indoors or near. So great is the influence of past customs of +devotion that they linger long past the hour when the act ceases +to become valid. + +"What an awful night!" she observed once, strolling to a window +to peer out from behind a brocaded valance. + +"It is bad, isn't it?" replied Cowperwood, as she returned. "Hadn't +you thought of going anywhere this evening?" + +"No--oh no," replied Aileen, indifferently. She rose restlessly +from the piano, and strolled on into the great picture-gallery. +Stopping before one of Raphael Sanzio's Holy Families, only recently +hung, she paused to contemplate the serene face--medieval, +Madonnaesque, Italian. + +The lady seemed fragile, colorless, spineless--without life. Were +there such women? Why did artists paint them? Yet the little Christ +was sweet. Art bored Aileen unless others were enthusiastic. She +craved only the fanfare of the living--not painted resemblances. +She returned to the music-room, to the court of orchids, and was +just about to go up-stairs to prepare herself a drink and read a +novel when Cowperwood observed: + +"You're bored, aren't you?" + +"Oh no; I'm used to lonely evenings," she replied, quietly and +without any attempt at sarcasm. + +Relentless as he was in hewing life to his theory--hammering +substance to the form of his thought--yet he was tender, too, in +the manner of a rainbow dancing over an abyss. For the moment he +wanted to say, "Poor girlie, you do have a hard time, don't you, +with me?" but he reflected instantly how such a remark would be +received. He meditated, holding his book in his hand above his +knee, looking at the purling water that flowed and flowed in +sprinkling showers over the sportive marble figures of mermaids, +a Triton, and nymphs astride of fishes. + +"You're really not happy in this state, any more, are you?" he +inquired. "Would you feel any more comfortable if I stayed away +entirely?" + +His mind had turned of a sudden to the one problem that was fretting +him and to the opportunities of this hour. + +"You would," she replied, for her boredom merely concealed her +unhappiness in no longer being able to command in the least his +interest or his sentiment. + +"Why do you say that in just that way?" he asked. + +"Because I know you would. I know why you ask. You know well +enough that it isn't anything I want to do that is concerned. +It's what you want to do. You'd like to turn me off like an old +horse now that you are tired of me, and so you ask whether I would +feel any more comfortable. What a liar you are, Frank! How really +shifty you are! I don't wonder you're a multimillionaire. If you +could live long enough you would eat up the whole world. Don't +you think for one moment that I don't know of Berenice Fleming +here in New York, and how you're dancing attendance on her--because +I do. I know how you have been hanging about her for months and +months--ever since we have been here, and for long before. You +think she's wonderful now because she's young and in society. +I've seen you in the Waldorf and in the Park hanging on her every +word, looking at her with adoring eyes. What a fool you are, to +be so big a man! Every little snip, if she has pink cheeks and a +doll's face, can wind you right around her finger. Rita Sohlberg +did it; Stephanie Platow did it; Florence Cochrane did it; Cecily +Haguenin--and Heaven knows how many more that I never heard of. +I suppose Mrs. Hand still lives with you in Chicago--the cheap +strumpet! Now it's Berenice Fleming and her frump of a mother. +From all I can learn you haven't been able to get her yet--because +her mother's too shrewd, perhaps--but you probably will in the +end. It isn't you so much as your money that they're after. Pah! +Well, I'm unhappy enough, but it isn't anything you can remedy any +more. Whatever you could do to make me unhappy you have done, and +now you talk of my being happier away from you. Clever boy, you! +I know you the way I know my ten fingers. You don't deceive me at +any time in any way any more. I can't do anything about it. I +can't stop you from making a fool of yourself with every woman you +meet, and having people talk from one end of the country to the +other. Why, for a woman to be seen with you is enough to fix her +reputation forever. Right now all Broadway knows you're running +after Berenice Fleming. Her name will soon be as sweet as those +of the others you've had. She might as well give herself to you. +If she ever had a decent reputation it's gone by now, you can +depend upon that. + +These remarks irritated Cowperwood greatly--enraged him--particularly +her references to Berenice. What were you to do with such a woman? +he thought. Her tongue was becoming unbearable; her speech in its +persistence and force was that of a termagant. Surely, surely, +he had made a great mistake in marrying her. At the same time the +control of her was largely in his own hands even yet. + +"Aileen," he said, coolly, at the end of her speech, "you talk too +much. You rave. You're growing vulgar, I believe. Now let me +tell you something." And he fixed her with a hard, quieting eye. +"I have no apologies to make. Think what you please. I know why +you say what you do. But here is the point. I want you to get +it straight and clear. It may make some difference eventually if +you're any kind of a woman at all. I don't care for you any more. +If you want to put it another way--I'm tired of you. I have been +for a long while. That's why I've run with other women. If I +hadn't been tired of you I wouldn't have done it. What's more, +I'm in love with somebody else--Berenice Fleming, and I expect to +stay in love. I wish I were free so I could rearrange my life on +a different basis and find a little comfort before I die. You +don't really care for me any more. You can't. I'll admit I have +treated you badly; but if I had really loved you I wouldn't have +done it, would I? It isn't my fault that love died in me, is it? +It isn't your fault. I'm not blaming you. Love isn't a bunch of +coals that can be blown by an artificial bellows into a flame at +any time. It's out, and that's an end of it. Since I don't love +you and can't, why should you want me to stay near you? Why shouldn't +you let me go and give me a divorce? You'll be just as happy or +unhappy away from me as with me. Why not? I want to be free again. +I'm miserable here, and have been for a long time. I'll make any +arrangement that seems fair and right to you. I'll give you this +house--these pictures, though I really don't see what you'd want +with them." (Cowperwood had no intention of giving up the gallery +if he could help it.) "I'll settle on you for life any income you +desire, or I'll give you a fixed sum outright. I want to be free, +and I want you to let me be. Now why won't you be sensible and +let me do this?" + +During this harangue Cowperwood had first sat and then stood. At +the statement that his love was really dead--the first time he +had ever baldly and squarely announced it--Aileen had paled a +little and put her hand to her forehead over her eyes. It was +then he had arisen. He was cold, determined, a little revengeful +for the moment. She realized now that he meant this--that in his +heart was no least feeling for all that had gone before--no sweet +memories, no binding thoughts of happy hours, days, weeks, years, +that were so glittering and wonderful to her in retrospect. Great +Heavens, it was really true! His love was dead; he had said it! +But for the nonce she could not believe it; she would not. It +really couldn't be true. + +"Frank," she began, coming toward him, the while he moved away to +evade her. Her eyes were wide, her hands trembling, her lips +moving in an emotional, wavy, rhythmic way. "You really don't +mean that, do you? Love isn't wholly dead, is it? All the love you +used to feel for me? Oh, Frank, I have raged, I have hated, I have +said terrible, ugly things, but it has been because I have been +in love with you! All the time I have. You know that. I have +felt so bad--O God, how bad I have felt! Frank, you don't know +it--but my pillow has been wet many and many a night. I have cried +and cried. I have got up and walked the floor. I have drunk +whisky--plain, raw whisky--because something hurt me and I wanted +to kill the pain. I have gone with other men, one after another +--you know that--but, oh! Frank, Frank, you know that I didn't +want to, that I didn't mean to! I have always despised the thought +of them afterward. It was only because I was lonely and because +you wouldn't pay any attention to me or be nice to me. Oh, how I +have longed and longed for just one loving hour with you--one +night, one day! There are women who could suffer in silence, but +I can't. My mind won't let me alone, Frank--my thoughts won't. +I can't help thinking how I used to run to you in Philadelphia, +when you would meet me on your way home, or when I used to come +to you in Ninth Street or on Eleventh. Oh, Frank, I probably did +wrong to your first wife. I see it now--how she must have suffered! +But I was just a silly girl then, and I didn't know. Don't you +remember how I used to come to you in Ninth Street and how I saw +you day after day in the penitentiary in Philadelphia? You said +then you would love me always and that you would never forget. +Can't you love me any more--just a little? Is it really true that +your love is dead? Am I so old, so changed? Oh, Frank, please don't +say that--please don't--please, please please! I beg of you!" + +She tried to reach him and put a hand on his arm, but he stepped +aside. To him, as he looked at her now, she was the antithesis +of anything he could brook, let alone desire artistically or +physically. The charm was gone, the spell broken. It was another +type, another point of view he required, but, above all and +principally, youth, youth--the spirit, for instance, that was in +Berenice Fleming. He was sorry--in his way. He felt sympathy, +but it was like the tinkling of a far-off sheep-bell--the moaning +of a whistling buoy heard over the thrash of night-black waves on +a stormy sea. + +"You don't understand how it is, Aileen," he said. "I can't help +myself. My love is dead. It is gone. I can't recall it. I can't +feel it. I wish I could, but I can't; you must understand that. +Some things are possible and some are not." + +He looked at her, but with no relenting. Aileen, for her part, +saw in his eyes nothing, as she believed, save cold philosophic +logic--the man of business, the thinker, the bargainer, the plotter. +At the thought of the adamantine character of his soul, which +could thus definitely close its gates on her for ever and ever, +she became wild, angry, feverish--not quite sane. + +"Oh, don't say that!" she pleaded, foolishly. "Please don't. +Please don't say that. It might come back a little if--if--you +would only believe in it. Don't you see how I feel? Don't you see +how it is?" + +She dropped to her knees and clasped him about the waist. "Oh, +Frank! Oh, Frank! Oh, Frank!" she began to call, crying. "I can't +stand it! I can't! I can't! I can't! I shall die." + +"Don't give way like that, Aileen," he pleaded. "It doesn't do +any good. I can't lie to myself. I don't want to lie to you. +Life is too short. Facts are facts. If I could say and believe +that I loved you I would say so now, but I can't. I don't love +you. Why should I say that I do?" + +In the content of Aileen's nature was a portion that was purely +histrionic, a portion that was childish--petted and spoiled--a +portion that was sheer unreason, and a portion that was splendid +emotion--deep, dark, involved. At this statement of Cowperwood's +which seemed to throw her back on herself for ever and ever to be +alone, she first pleaded willingness to compromise--to share. She +had not fought Stephanie Platow, she had not fought Florence +Cochrane, nor Cecily Haguenin, nor Mrs. Hand, nor, indeed, anybody +after Rita, and she would fight no more. She had not spied on him +in connection with Berenice--she had accidentally met them. True, +she had gone with other men, but? Berenice was beautiful, she +admitted it, but so was she in her way still--a little, still. +Couldn't he find a place for her yet in his life? Wasn't there +room for both? + +At this expression of humiliation and defeat Cowperwood was sad, +sick, almost nauseated. How could one argue? How make her understand? + +"I wish it were possible, Aileen," he concluded, finally and +heavily, "but it isn't." + +All at once she arose, her eyes red but dry. + +"You don't love me, then, at all, do you? Not a bit?" + +"No, Aileen, I don't. I don't mean by that that I dislike you. +I don't mean to say that you aren't interesting in your way as a +woman and that I don't sympathize with you. I do. But I don't +love you any more. I can't. The thing I used to feel I can't +feel any more." + +She paused for a moment, uncertain how to take this, the while she +whitened, grew more tense, more spiritual than she had been in +many a day. Now she felt desperate, angry, sick, but like the +scorpion that ringed by fire can turn only on itself. What a hell +life was, she told herself. How it slipped away and left one +aging, horribly alone! Love was nothing, faith nothing--nothing, +nothing! + +A fine light of conviction, intensity, intention lit her eye for +the moment. "Very well, then," she said, coolly, tensely. "I +know what I'll do. I'll not live this way. I'll not live beyond +to-night. I want to die, anyhow, and I will." + +It was by no means a cry, this last, but a calm statement. It +should prove her love. To Cowperwood it seemed unreal, bravado, +a momentary rage intended to frighten him. She turned and walked +up the grand staircase, which was near--a splendid piece of marble +and bronze fifteen feet wide, with marble nereids for newel-posts, +and dancing figures worked into the stone. She went into her room +quite calmly and took up a steel paper-cutter of dagger design--a +knife with a handle of bronze and a point of great sharpness. +Coming out and going along the balcony over the court of orchids, +where Cowperwood still was seated, she entered the sunrise room +with its pool of water, its birds, its benches, its vines. Locking +the door, she sat down and then, suddenly baring an arm, jabbed a +vein--ripped it for inches--and sat there to bleed. Now she would +see whether she could die, whether he would let her. + +Uncertain, astonished, not able to believe that she could be so +rash, not believing that her feeling could be so great, Cowperwood +still remained where she had left him wondering. He had not been +so greatly moved--the tantrums of women were common--and yet-- +Could she really be contemplating death? How could she? How +ridiculous! Life was so strange, so mad. But this was Aileen who +had just made this threat, and she had gone up the stairs to carry +it out, perhaps. Impossible! How could it be? Yet back of all his +doubts there was a kind of sickening feeling, a dread. He recalled +how she had assaulted Rita Sohlberg. + +He hurried up the steps now and into her room. She was not there. +He went quickly along the balcony, looking here and there, until +he came to the sunrise room. She must be there, for the door was +shut. He tried it--it was locked. + +"Aileen," he called. "Aileen! Are you in there?" No answer. He +listened. Still no answer. "Aileen!" he repeated. "Are you in +there? What damned nonsense is this, anyhow?" + +"George!" he thought to himself, stepping back; "she might do it, +too--perhaps she has." He could not hear anything save the odd +chattering of a toucan aroused by the light she had switched on. +Perspiration stood out on his brow. He shook the knob, pushed a +bell for a servant, called for keys which had been made for every +door, called for a chisel and hammer. + +"Aileen," he said, "if you don't open the door this instant I will +see that it is opened. It can be opened quick enough." + +Still no sound. + +"Damn it!" he exclaimed, becoming wretched, horrified. A servant +brought the keys. The right one would not enter. A second was +on the other side. "There is a bigger hammer somewhere," Cowperwood +said. "Get it! Get me a chair!" Meantime, with terrific energy, +using a large chisel, he forced the door. + +There on one of the stone benches of the lovely room sat Aileen, +the level pool of water before her, the sunrise glow over every +thing, tropic birds in their branches, and she, her hair disheveled, +her face pale, one arm--her left--hanging down, ripped and bleeding, +trickling a thick stream of rich, red blood. On the floor was a +pool of blood, fierce, scarlet, like some rich cloth, already +turning darker in places. + +Cowperwood paused--amazed. He hurried forward, seized her arm, +made a bandage of a torn handkerchief above the wound, sent for a +surgeon, saying the while: "How could you, Aileen? How impossible! +To try to take your life! This isn't love. It isn't even madness. +It's foolish acting." + +"Don't you really care?" she asked. + +"How can you ask? How could you really do this?" + +He was angry, hurt, glad that she was alive, shamed--many things. + +"Don't you really care?" she repeated, wearily. + +"Aileen, this is nonsense. I will not talk to you about it now. +Have you cut yourself anywhere else?" he asked, feeling about her +bosom and sides. + +"Then why not let me die?" she replied, in the same manner. "I +will some day. I want to." + +"Well, you may, some day," he replied, "but not to-night. I +scarcely think you want to now. This is too much, Aileen--really +impossible." + +He drew himself up and looked at her--cool, unbelieving, the light +of control, even of victory, in his eyes. As he had suspected, +it was not truly real. She would not have killed herself. She +had expected him to come--to make the old effort. Very good. He +would see her safely in bed and in a nurse's hands, and would then +avoid her as much as possible in the future. If her intention was +genuine she would carry it out in his absence, but he did not +believe she would. + + + + +Chapter LVIII + + + +A Marauder Upon the Commonwealth + +The spring and summer months of 1897 and the late fall of 1898 +witnessed the final closing battle between Frank Algernon Cowperwood +and the forces inimical to him in so far as the city of Chicago, +the state of Illinois, and indeed the United States of America, +were concerned. When in 1896 a new governor and a new group of +state representatives were installed Cowperwood decided that it +would be advisable to continue the struggle at once. By the time +this new legislature should convene for its labors a year would +have passed since Governor Swanson had vetoed the original +public-service-commission bill. By that time public sentiment as +aroused by the newspapers would have had time to cool. Already +through various favorable financial interests--particularly +Haeckelheimer, Gotloeb & Co. and all the subsurface forces they +represented--he had attempted to influence the incoming governor, +and had in part succeeded. + +The new governor in this instance--one Corporal A. E. Archer--or +ex-Congressman Archer, as he was sometimes called--was, unlike +Swanson, a curious mixture of the commonplace and the ideal--one +of those shiftily loyal and loyally shifty who make their upward +way by devious, if not too reprehensible methods. He was a little +man, stocky, brown-haired, brown-eyed, vigorous, witty, with the +ordinary politician's estimate of public morality--namely, that +there is no such thing. A drummer-boy at fourteen in the War of +the Rebellion, a private at sixteen and eighteen, he had subsequently +been breveted for conspicuous military service. At this later +time he was head of the Grand Army of the Republic, and conspicuous +in various stirring eleemosynary efforts on behalf of the old +soldiers, their widows and orphans. A fine American, flag-waving, +tobacco-chewing, foul-swearing little man was this--and one with +noteworthy political ambitions. Other Grand Army men had been +conspicuous in the lists for Presidential nominations. Why not +he? An excellent orator in a high falsetto way, and popular because +of good-fellowship, presence, force, he was by nature materially +and commercially minded--therefore without basic appeal to the +higher ranks of intelligence. In seeking the nomination for +governorship he had made the usual overtures and had in turn been +sounded by Haeckelheimer, Gotloeb, and various other corporate +interests who were in league with Cowperwood as to his attitude +in regard to a proposed public-service commission. At first he +had refused to commit himself. Later, finding that the C. W. & +I. and the Chicago & Pacific (very powerful railroads both) were +interested, and that other candidates were running him a tight +chase in the gubernatorial contest, he succumbed in a measure, +declaring privately that in case the legislature proved to be +strongly in favor of the idea and the newspapers not too crushingly +opposed he might be willing to stand as its advocate. Other +candidates expressed similar views, but Corporal Archer proved to +have the greater following, and was eventually nominated and +comfortably elected. + +Shortly after the new legislature had convened, it so chanced that +a certain A. S. Rotherhite, publisher of the South Chicago Journal, +was one day accidentally sitting as a visitor in the seat of a +state representative by the name of Clarence Mulligan. While so +occupied Rotherhite was familiarly slapped on the back by a certain +Senator Ladrigo, of Menard, and was invited to come out into the +rotunda, where, posing as Representative Mulligan, he was introduced +by Senator Ladrigo to a stranger by the name of Gerard. The latter, +with but few preliminary remarks, began as follows: + +"Mr. Mulligan, I want to fix it with you in regard to this Southack +bill which is soon to come up in the house. We have seventy votes, +but we want ninety. The fact that the bill has gone to a second +reading in the senate shows our strength. I am authorized to come +to terms with you this morning if you would like. Your vote is +worth two thousand dollars to you the moment the bill is signed." + +Mr. Rotherhite, who happened to be a newly recruited member of the +Opposition press, proved very canny in this situation. + +"Excuse me," he stammered, "I did not understand your name?" + +"Gerard. G-er-ard. Henry A. Gerard," replied this other. + +"Thank you. I will think it over," was the response of the presumed +Representative Mulligan. + +Strange to state, at this very instant the authentic Mulligan +actually appeared--heralded aloud by several of his colleagues who +happened to be lingering near by in the lobby. Whereupon the +anomalous Mr. Gerard and the crafty Senator Ladrigo discreetly +withdrew. Needless to say that Mr. Rotherhite hurried at once to +the forces of righteousness. The press should spread this little +story broadcast. It was a very meaty incident; and it brought the +whole matter once more into the fatal, poisonous field of press +discussion. + +At once the Chicago papers flew to arms. The cry was raised that +the same old sinister Cowperwoodian forces were at work. The +members of the senate and the house were solemnly warned. The +sterling attitude of ex-Governor Swanson was held up as an example +to the present Governor Archer. "The whole idea," observed an +editorial in Truman Leslie MacDonald's Inquirer, "smacks of chicane, +political subtlety, and political jugglery. Well do the citizens +of Chicago and the people of Illinois know who and what particular +organization would prove the true beneficiaries. We do not want +a public-service commission at the behest of a private street-railway +corporation. Are the tentacles of Frank A. Cowperwood to envelop +this legislature as they did the last?" + +This broadside, coming in conjunction with various hostile rumblings +in other papers, aroused Cowperwood to emphatic language. + +"They can all go to the devil," he said to Addison, one day at +lunch. "I have a right to an extension of my franchises for fifty +years, and I am going to get it. Look at New York and Philadelphia. +Why, the Eastern houses laugh. They don't understand such a +situation. It's all the inside work of this Hand-Schryhart crowd. +I know what they're doing and who's pulling the strings. The +newspapers yap-yap every time they give an order. Hyssop waltzes +every time Arneel moves. Little MacDonald is a stool-pigeon for +Hand. It's got down so low now that it's anything to beat Cowperwood. +Well, they won't beat me. I'll find a way out. The legislature +will pass a bill allowing for a fifty-year franchise, and the +governor will sign it. I'll see to that personally. I have at +least eighteen thousand stockholders who want a decent run for +their money, and I propose to give it to them. Aren't other men +getting rich? Aren't other corporations earning ten and twelve per +cent? Why shouldn't I? Is Chicago any the worse? Don't I employ +twenty thousand men and pay them well? All this palaver about the +rights of the people and the duty to the public--rats! Does Mr. +Hand acknowledge any duty to the public where his special interests +are concerned? Or Mr. Schryhart? Or Mr. Arneel? The newspapers be +damned! I know my rights. An honest legislature will give me a +decent franchise to save me from the local political sharks." + +By this time, however, the newspapers had become as subtle and +powerful as the politicians themselves. Under the great dome of +the capitol at Springfield, in the halls and conference chambers +of the senate and house, in the hotels, and in the rural districts +wherever any least information was to be gathered, were their +representatives--to see, to listen, to pry. Out of this contest +they were gaining prestige and cash. By them were the reform +aldermen persuaded to call mass-meetings in their respective +districts. Property-owners were urged to organize; a committee +of one hundred prominent citizens led by Hand and Schryhart was +formed. It was not long before the halls, chambers, and committee-rooms +of the capitol at Springfield and the corridors of the one principal +hotel were being tramped over almost daily by rampant delegations +of ministers, reform aldermen, and civil committeemen, who arrived +speechifying, threatening, and haranguing, and departed, only to +make room for another relay. + +"Say, what do you think of these delegations, Senator?" inquired +a certain Representative Greenough of Senator George Christian, +of Grundy, one morning, the while a group of Chicago clergymen +accompanied by the mayor and several distinguished private citizens +passed through the rotunda on their way to the committee on +railroads, where the house bill was privily being discussed. +"Don't you think they speak well for our civic pride and moral +upbringing?" He raised his eyes and crossed his fingers over his +waistcoat in the most sanctimonious and reverential attitude. + +"Yes, dear Pastor," replied the irreverent Christian, without the +shadow of a smile. He was a little sallow, wiry man with eyes +like a ferret, a small mustache and goatee ornamenting his face. +"But do not forget that the Lord has called us also to this work." + +"Even so," acquiesced Greenough. "We must not weary in well doing. +The harvest is truly plenteous and the laborers are few." + +"Tut, tut, Pastor. Don't overdo it. You might make me larf," +replied Christian; and the twain parted with knowing and yet weary +smiles. + +Yet how little did the accommodating attitude of these gentlemen +avail in silencing the newspapers. The damnable newspapers! They +were here, there, and everywhere reporting each least fragment of +rumor, conversation, or imaginary programme. Never did the citizens +of Chicago receive so keen a drilling in statecraft--its subtleties +and ramifications. The president of the senate and the speaker +of the house were singled out and warned separately as to their +duty. A page a day devoted to legislative proceeding in this +quarter was practically the custom of the situation. Cowperwood +was here personally on the scene, brazen, defiant, logical, the +courage of his convictions in his eyes, the power of his magnetism +fairly enslaving men. Throwing off the mask of disinterestedness +--if any might be said to have covered him--he now frankly came +out in the open and, journeying to Springfield, took quarters at +the principal hotel. Like a general in time of battle, he marshaled +his forces about him. In the warm, moonlit atmosphere of June +nights when the streets of Springfield were quiet, the great plain +of Illinois bathed for hundreds of miles from north to south in a +sweet effulgence and the rurals slumbering in their simple homes, +he sat conferring with his lawyers and legislative agents. + +Pity in such a crisis the poor country-jake legislator torn between +his desire for a justifiable and expedient gain and his fear lest +he should be assailed as a betrayer of the people's interests. +To some of these small-town legislators, who had never seen as +much as two thousand dollars in cash in all their days, the problem +was soul-racking. Men gathered in private rooms and hotel parlors +to discuss it. They stood in their rooms at night and thought +about it alone. The sight of big business compelling its desires +the while the people went begging was destructive. Many a romantic, +illusioned, idealistic young country editor, lawyer, or statesman +was here made over into a minor cynic or bribe-taker. Men were +robbed of every vestige of faith or even of charity; they came to +feel, perforce, that there was nothing outside the capacity for +taking and keeping. The surface might appear commonplace--ordinary +men of the state of Illinois going here and there--simple farmers +and small-town senators and representatives conferring and meditating +and wondering what they could do--yet a jungle-like complexity was +present, a dark, rank growth of horrific but avid life--life at +the full, life knife in hand, life blazing with courage and dripping +at the jaws with hunger. + +However, because of the terrific uproar the more cautious legislators +were by degrees becoming fearful. Friends in their home towns, +at the instigation of the papers, were beginning to write them. +Political enemies were taking heart. It meant too much of a +sacrifice on the part of everybody. In spite of the fact that the +bait was apparently within easy reach, many became evasive and +disturbed. When a certain Representative Sparks, cocked and primed, +with the bill in his pocket, arose upon the floor of the house, +asking leave to have it spread upon the minutes, there was an +instant explosion. The privilege of the floor was requested by a +hundred. Another representative, Disback, being in charge of the +opposition to Cowperwood, had made a count of noses and was satisfied +in spite of all subtlety on the part of the enemy that he had at +least one hundred and two votes, the necessary two-thirds wherewith +to crush any measure which might originate on the floor. Nevertheless, +his followers, because of caution, voted it to a second and a third +reading. All sorts of amendments were made--one for a three-cent +fare during the rush-hours, another for a 20 per cent. tax on +gross receipts. In amended form the measure was sent to the senate, +where the changes were stricken out and the bill once more returned +to the house. Here, to Cowperwood's chagrin, signs were made +manifest that it could not be passed. "It can't be done, Frank," +said Judge Dickensheets. "It's too grilling a game. Their home +papers are after them. They can't live." + +Consequently a second measure was devised--more soothing and lulling +to the newspapers, but far less satisfactory to Cowperwood. It +conferred upon the Chicago City Council, by a trick of revising +the old Horse and Dummy Act of 1865, the right to grant a franchise +for fifty instead of for twenty years. This meant that Cowperwood +would have to return to Chicago and fight out his battle there. +It was a severe blow, yet better than nothing. Providing that he +could win one more franchise battle within the walls of the city +council in Chicago, it would give him all that he desired. But +could he? Had he not come here to the legislature especially to +evade such a risk? His motives were enduring such a blistering +exposure. Yet perhaps, after all, if the price were large enough +the Chicago councilmen would have more real courage than these +country legislators--would dare more. They would have to. + +So, after Heaven knows what desperate whisperings, conferences, +arguments, and heartening of members, there was originated a second +measure which--after the defeat of the first bill, 104 to 49--was +introduced, by way of a very complicated path, through the judiciary +committee. It was passed; and Governor Archer, after heavy hours +of contemplation and self-examination, signed it. A little man +mentally, he failed to estimate an aroused popular fury at its +true import to him. At his elbow was Cowperwood in the clear light +of day, snapping his fingers in the face of his enemies, showing +by the hard, cheerful glint in his eye that he was still master of +the situation, giving all assurance that he would yet live to whip +the Chicago papers into submission. Besides, in the event of the +passage of the bill, Cowperwood had promised to make Archer +independently rich--a cash reward of five hundred thousand dollars. + + + + +Chapter LIX + + + +Capital and Public Rights + +Between the passage on June 5, 1897, of the Mears bill--so christened +after the doughty representative who had received a small fortune +for introducing it--and its presentation to the Chicago City Council +in December of the same year, what broodings, plottings, politickings, +and editorializings on the part of all and sundry! In spite of the +intense feeling of opposition to Cowperwood there was at the same +time in local public life one stratum of commercial and phlegmatic +substance that could not view him in an altogether unfavorable +light. They were in business themselves. His lines passed their +doors and served them. They could not see wherein his street-railway +service differed so much from that which others might give. Here +was the type of materialist who in Cowperwood's defiance saw a +justification of his own material point of view and was not afraid +to say so. But as against these there were the preachers--poor +wind-blown sticks of unreason who saw only what the current palaver +seemed to indicate. Again there were the anarchists, socialists, +single-taxers, and public-ownership advocates. There were the +very poor who saw in Cowperwood's wealth and in the fabulous stories +of his New York home and of his art-collection a heartless +exploitation of their needs. At this time the feeling was spreading +broadcast in America that great political and economic changes +were at hand--that the tyranny of iron masters at the top was to +give way to a richer, freer, happier life for the rank and file. +A national eight-hour-day law was being advocated, and the public +ownership of public franchises. And here now was a great +street-railway corporation, serving a population of a million and +a half, occupying streets which the people themselves created by +their presence, taking toll from all these humble citizens to the +amount of sixteen or eighteen millions of dollars in the year and +giving in return, so the papers said, poor service, shabby cars, +no seats at rush-hours, no universal transfers (as a matter of +fact, there were in operation three hundred and sixty-two separate +transfer points) and no adequate tax on the immense sums earned. +The workingman who read this by gas or lamp light in the kitchen +or parlor of his shabby flat or cottage, and who read also in other +sections of his paper of the free, reckless, glorious lives of the +rich, felt himself to be defrauded of a portion of his rightful +inheritance. It was all a question of compelling Frank A. Cowperwood +to do his duty by Chicago. He must not again be allowed to bribe +the aldermen; he must not be allowed to have a fifty-year franchise, +the privilege of granting which he had already bought from the +state legislature by the degradation of honest men. He must be +made to succumb, to yield to the forces of law and order. It was +claimed--and with a justice of which those who made the charge +were by no means fully aware--that the Mears bill had been put +through the house and senate by the use of cold cash, proffered +even to the governor himself. No legal proof of this was obtainable, +but Cowperwood was assumed to be a briber on a giant scale. By +the newspaper cartoons he was represented as a pirate commander +ordering his men to scuttle another vessel--the ship of Public +Rights. He was pictured as a thief, a black mask over his eyes, +and as a seducer, throttling Chicago, the fair maiden, while he +stole her purse. The fame of this battle was by now becoming +world-wide. In Montreal, in Cape Town, in Buenos Ayres and +Melbourne, in London and Paris, men were reading of this singular +struggle. At last, and truly, he was a national and international +figure. His original dream, however, modified by circumstances, +had literally been fulfilled. + +Meanwhile be it admitted that the local elements in finance which +had brought about this terrific onslaught on Cowperwood were not +a little disturbed as to the eventual character of the child of +their own creation. Here at last was a public opinion definitely +inimical to Cowperwood; but here also were they themselves, +tremendous profit-holders, with a desire for just such favors as +Cowperwood himself had exacted, deliberately setting out to kill +the goose that could lay the golden egg. Men such as Haeckelheimer, +Gotloeb, Fishel, tremendous capitalists in the East and foremost +in the directorates of huge transcontinental lines, international +banking-houses, and the like, were amazed that the newspapers and +the anti-Cowperwood element should have gone so far in Chicago. +Had they no respect for capital? Did they not know that long-time +franchises were practically the basis of all modern capitalistic +prosperity? Such theories as were now being advocated here would +spread to other cities unless checked. America might readily become +anti-capitalistic--socialistic. Public ownership might appear as +a workable theory--and then what? + +"Those men out there are very foolish," observed Mr. Haeckelheimer +at one time to Mr. Fishel, of Fishel, Stone & Symons. "I can't +see that Mr. Cowperwood is different from any other organizer of +his day. He seems to me perfectly sound and able. All his companies +pay. There are no better investments than the North and West +Chicago railways. It would be advisable, in my judgment, that all +the lines out there should be consolidated and be put in his charge. +He would make money for the stockholders. He seems to know how +to run street-railways." + +"You know," replied Mr. Fishel, as smug and white as Mr. Haeckelheimer, +and in thorough sympathy with his point of view, "I have been +thinking of something like that myself. All this quarreling should +be hushed up. It's very bad for business--very. Once they get +that public-ownership nonsense started, it will be hard to stop. +There has been too much of it already." + +Mr. Fishel was stout and round like Mr. Haeckelheimer, but much +smaller. He was little more than a walking mathematical formula. +In his cranium were financial theorems and syllogisms of the +second, third, and fourth power only. + +And now behold a new trend of affairs. Mr. Timothy Arneel, attacked +by pneumonia, dies and leaves his holdings in Chicago City to his +eldest son, Edward Arneel. Mr. Fishel and Mr. Haeckelheimer, +through agents and then direct, approach Mr. Merrill in behalf of +Cowperwood. There is much talk of profits--how much more profitable +has been the Cowperwood regime over street-railway lines than that +of Mr. Schryhart. Mr. Fishel is interested in allaying socialistic +excitement. So, by this time, is Mr. Merrill. Directly hereafter +Mr. Haeckelheimer approaches Mr. Edward Arneel, who is not nearly +so forceful as his father, though he would like to be so. He, +strange to relate, has come rather to admire Cowperwood and sees +no advantage in a policy that can only tend to municipalize local +lines. Mr. Merrill, for Mr. Fishel, approaches Mr. Hand. "Never! +never! never!" says Hand. Mr. Haeckelheimer approaches Mr. Hand. +"Never! never! never! To the devil with Mr. Cowperwood!" But as +a final emissary for Mr. Haeckelheimer and Mr. Fishel there now +appears Mr. Morgan Frankhauser, the partner of Mr. Hand in a +seven-million-dollar traction scheme in Minneapolis and St. Paul. +Why will Mr. Hand be so persistent? Why pursue a scheme of revenge +which only stirs up the masses and makes municipal ownership a +valid political idea, thus disturbing capital elsewhere? Why not +trade his Chicago holdings to him, Frankhauser, for Pittsburg +traction stock--share and share alike--and then fight Cowperwood +all he pleases on the outside? + +Mr. Hand, puzzled, astounded, scratching his round head, slaps a +heavy hand on his desk. "Never!" he exclaims. "Never, by God--as +long as I am alive and in Chicago!" And then he yields. Life does +shifty things, he is forced to reflect in a most puzzled way. +Never would he have believed it! "Schryhart," he declared to +Frankhauser, "will never come in. He will die first. Poor old +Timothy--if he were alive--he wouldn't either." + +"Leave Mr. Schryhart out of it, for Heaven's sake," pleaded Mr. +Frankhauser, a genial American German. "Haven't I troubles enough?" + +Mr. Schryhart is enraged. Never! never! never! He will sell out +first--but he is in a minority, and Mr. Frankhauser, for Mr. Fishel +or Mr. Haeckelheimer, will gladly take his holdings. + +Now behold in the autumn of 1897 all rival Chicago street-railway +lines brought to Mr. Cowperwood on a platter, as it were--a golden +platter. + +"Ve haff it fixed," confidentially declared Mr. Gotloeb to Mr. +Cowperwood, over an excellent dinner in the sacred precincts of +the Metropolitan Club in New York. Time, 8.30 P.M. Wine--sparkling +burgundy. "A telegram come shusst to-day from Frankhauser. A +nice man dot. You shouldt meet him sometime. Hant--he sells out +his stock to Frankhauser. Merrill unt Edward Arneel vork vit us. +Ve hantle efferyt'ing for dem. Mr. Fishel vill haff his friends +pick up all de local shares he can, unt mit dees tree ve control +de board. Schryhart iss out. He sess he vill resign. Very goot. +I don't subbose dot vill make you veep any. It all hintges now +on vether you can get dot fifty-year-franchise ordinance troo de +city council or not. Haeckelheimer sess he prefers you to all +utters to run t'ings. He vill leef everytink positifely in your +hands. Frankhauser sess de same. Vot Haeckelheimer sess he doess. +Now dere you are. It's up to you. I vish you much choy. It is +no small chop you haff, beating de newspapers, unt you still haff +Hant unt Schryhart against you. Mr. Haeckelheimer askt me to pay +his complimends to you unt to say vill you dine vit him next veek, +or may he dine vit you--vicheffer iss most conveniend. So." + +In the mayor's chair of Chicago at this time sat a man named Walden +H. Lucas. Aged thirty-eight, he was politically ambitious. He +had the elements of popularity--the knack or luck of fixing public +attention. A fine, upstanding, healthy young buck he was, subtle, +vigorous, a cool, direct, practical thinker and speaker, an eager +enigmatic dreamer of great political honors to come, anxious to +play his cards just right, to make friends, to be the pride of the +righteous, and yet the not too uncompromising foe of the wicked. +In short, a youthful, hopeful Western Machiavelli, and one who +could, if he chose, serve the cause of the anti-Cowperwood struggle +exceedingly well indeed. + +Cowperwood, disturbed, visits the mayor in his office. + +"Mr. Lucas, what is it you personally want? What can I do for you? +Is it future political preferment you are after?" + +"Mr. Cowperwood, there isn't anything you can do for me. You do +not understand me, and I do not understand you. You cannot understand +me because I am an honest man." + +"Ye gods!" replied Cowperwood. "This is certainly a case of +self-esteem and great knowledge. Good afternoon." + +Shortly thereafter the mayor was approached by one Mr. Carker, who +was the shrewd, cold, and yet magnetic leader of Democracy in the +state of New York. Said Carker: + +"You see, Mr. Lucas, the great money houses of the East are +interested in this local contest here in Chicago. For example, +Haeckelheimer, Gotloeb & Co. would like to see a consolidation +of all the lines on a basis that will make them an attractive +investment for buyers generally and will at the same time be fair +and right to the city. A twenty-year contract is much too short +a term in their eyes. Fifty is the least they could comfortably +contemplate, and they would prefer a hundred. It is little enough +for so great an outlay. The policy now being pursued here can +lead only to the public ownership of public utilities, and that +is something which the national Democratic party at large can +certainly not afford to advocate at present. It would antagonize +the money element from coast to coast. Any man whose political +record was definitely identified with such a movement would have +no possible chance at even a state nomination, let alone a national +one. He could never be elected. I make myself clear, do I not?" + +"You do." + +"A man can just as easily be taken from the mayor's office in +Chicago as from the governor's office at Springfield," pursued Mr. +Carker. "Mr. Haeckelheimer and Mr. Fishel have personally asked +me to call on you. If you want to be mayor of Chicago again for +two years or governor next year, until the time for picking a +candidate for the Presidency arrives, suit yourself. In the mean +time you will be unwise, in my judgment, to saddle yourself with +this public-ownership idea. The newspapers in fighting Mr. +Cowperwood have raised an issue which never should have been +raised." + +After Mr. Carker's departure, arrived Mr. Edward Arneel, of local +renown, and then Mr. Jacob Bethal, the Democratic leader in San +Francisco, both offering suggestions which if followed might result +in mutual support. There were in addition delegations of powerful +Republicans from Minneapolis and from Philadelphia. Even the +president of the Lake City Bank and the president of the Prairie +National--once anti-Cowperwood--arrived to say what had already +been said. So it went. Mr. Lucas was greatly nonplussed. A +political career was surely a difficult thing to effect. Would +it pay to harry Mr. Cowperwood as he had set out to do? Would a +steadfast policy advocating the cause of the people get him anywhere? +Would they be grateful? Would they remember? Suppose the current +policy of the newspapers should be modified, as Mr. Carker had +suggested that it might be. What a mess and tangle politics really +were! + +"Well, Bessie," he inquired of his handsome, healthy, semi-blonde +wife, one evening, "what would you do if you were I?" + +She was gray-eyed, gay, practical, vain, substantially connected +in so far as family went, and proud of her husband's position and +future. He had formed the habit of talking over his various +difficulties with her. + +"Well, I'll tell you, Wally," she replied. "You've got to stick +to something. It looks to me as though the winning side was with +the people this time. I don't see how the newspapers can change +now after all they've done. You don't have to advocate public +ownership or anything unfair to the money element, but just the +same I'd stick to my point that the fifty-year franchise is too +much. You ought to make them pay the city something and get their +franchise without bribery. They can't do less than that. I'd +stick to the course you've begun on. You can't get along without +the people, Wally. You just must have them. If you lose their +good will the politicians can't help you much, nor anybody else." + +Plainly there were times when the people had to be considered. +They just had to be! + + + + +Chapter LX + + + +The Net + +The storm which burst in connection with Cowperwood's machinations +at Springfield early in 1897, and continued without abating until +the following fall, attracted such general attention that it was +largely reported in the Eastern papers. F. A. Cowperwood versus +the state of Illinois--thus one New York daily phrased the situation. +The magnetizing power of fame is great. Who can resist utterly +the luster that surrounds the individualities of some men, causing +them to glow with a separate and special effulgence? Even in the +case of Berenice this was not without its value. In a Chicago +paper which she found lying one day on a desk which Cowperwood had +occupied was an extended editorial which interested her greatly. +After reciting his various misdeeds, particularly in connection +with the present state legislature, it went on to say: "He has an +innate, chronic, unconquerable contempt for the rank and file. +Men are but slaves and thralls to draw for him the chariot of his +greatness. Never in all his history has he seen fit to go to the +people direct for anything. In Philadelphia, when he wanted +public-franchise control, he sought privily and by chicane to +arrange his affairs with a venal city treasurer. In Chicago he +has uniformly sought to buy and convert to his own use the splendid +privileges of the city, which should really redound to the benefit +of all. Frank Algernon Cowperwood does not believe in the people; +he does not trust them. To him they constitute no more than a +field upon which corn is to be sown, and from which it is to be +reaped. They present but a mass of bent backs, their knees and +faces in the mire, over which as over a floor he strides to +superiority. His private and inmost faith is in himself alone. +Upon the majority he shuts the gates of his glory in order that +the sight of their misery and their needs may not disturb nor alloy +his selfish bliss. Frank Algernon Cowperwood does not believe in +the people." + +This editorial battle-cry, flung aloft during the latter days of +the contest at Springfield and taken up by the Chicago papers +generally and by those elsewhere, interested Berenice greatly. +As she thought of him--waging his terrific contests, hurrying to +and fro between New York and Chicago, building his splendid mansion, +collecting his pictures, quarreling with Aileen--he came by degrees +to take on the outlines of a superman, a half-god or demi-gorgon. +How could the ordinary rules of life or the accustomed paths of +men be expected to control him? They could not and did not. And +here he was pursuing her, seeking her out with his eyes, grateful +for a smile, waiting as much as he dared on her every wish and +whim. + +Say what one will, the wish buried deep in every woman's heart is +that her lover should be a hero. Some, out of the veriest stick +or stone, fashion the idol before which they kneel, others demand +the hard reality of greatness; but in either case the illusion of +paragon-worship is maintained. + +Berenice, by no means ready to look upon Cowperwood as an accepted +lover, was nevertheless gratified that his erring devotion was the +tribute of one able apparently to command thought from the whole +world. Moreover, because the New York papers had taken fire from +his great struggle in the Middle West and were charging him with +bribery, perjury, and intent to thwart the will of the people, +Cowperwood now came forward with an attempt to explain his exact +position to Berenice and to justify himself in her eyes. During +visits to the Carter house or in entr'actes at the opera or the +theater, he recounted to her bit by bit his entire history. He +described the characters of Hand, Schryhart, Arneel, and the motives +of jealousy and revenge which had led to their attack upon him in +Chicago. "No human being could get anything through the Chicago +City Council without paying for it," he declared. "It's simply a +question of who's putting up the money." He told how Truman Leslie +MacDonald had once tried to "shake him down" for fifty thousand +dollars, and how the newspapers had since found it possible to +make money, to increase their circulation, by attacking him. He +frankly admitted the fact of his social ostracism, attributing it +partially to Aileen's deficiencies and partially to his own attitude +of Promethean defiance, which had never yet brooked defeat. + +"And I will defeat them now," he said, solemnly, to Berenice one +day over a luncheon-table at the Plaza when the room was nearly +empty. His gray eyes were a study in colossal enigmatic spirit. +"The governor hasn't signed my fifty-year franchise bill" (this +was before the closing events at Springfield), "but he will sign +it. Then I have one more fight ahead of me. I'm going to combine +all the traffic lines out there under one general system. I am +the logical person to provide it. Later on, if public ownership +ever arrives, the city can buy it." + +"And then--" asked Berenice sweetly, flattered by his confidences. + +"Oh, I don't know. I suppose I'll live abroad. You don't seem +to be very much interested in me. I'll finish my picture collection--" + +"But supposing you should lose?" + +"I don't contemplate losing," he remarked, coolly. "Whatever +happens, I'll have enough to live on. I'm a little tired of contest." + +He smiled, but Berenice saw that the thought of defeat was a gray +one. With victory was his heart, and only there. Owing to the +national publicity being given to Cowperwood's affairs at this +time the effect upon Berenice of these conversations with him was +considerable. At the same time another and somewhat sinister +influence was working in his favor. By slow degrees she and her +mother were coming to learn that the ultra-conservatives of society +were no longer willing to accept them. Berenice had become at +last too individual a figure to be overlooked. At an important +luncheon given by the Harris Haggertys, some five months after the +Beales Chadsey affair, she had been pointed out to Mrs. Haggerty +by a visiting guest from Cincinnati as some one with whom rumor +was concerning itself. Mrs. Haggerty wrote to friends in Louisville +for information, and received it. Shortly after, at the coming-out +party of a certain Geraldine Borga, Berenice, who had been her +sister's schoolmate, was curiously omitted. She took sharp note +of that. Subsequently the Haggertys failed to include her, as +they had always done before, in their generous summer invitations. +This was true also of the Lanman Zeiglers and the Lucas Demmigs. +No direct affront was offered; she was simply no longer invited. +Also one morning she read in the Tribune that Mrs. Corscaden +Batjer had sailed for Italy. No word of this had been sent to +Berenice. Yet Mrs. Batjer was supposedly one of her best friends. +A hint to some is of more avail than an open statement to others. +Berenice knew quite well in which direction the tide was setting. + +True, there were a number--the ultra-smart of the smart world--who +protested. Mrs. Patrick Gilbennin, for instance: "No! You don't +tell me? What a shame! Well, I like Bevy and shall always like +her. She's clever, and she can come here just as long as she +chooses. It isn't her fault. She's a lady at heart and always +will be. Life is so cruel." Mrs. Augustus Tabreez: "Is that really +true? I can't believe it. Just the same, she's too charming to +be dropped. I for one propose to ignore these rumors just as long +as I dare. She can come here if she can't go anywhere else." Mrs. +Pennington Drury: "That of Bevy Fleming! Who says so? I don't +believe it. I like her anyhow. The idea of the Haggertys cutting +her--dull fools! Well, she can be my guest, the dear thing, as +long as she pleases. As though her mother's career really affected +her!" + +Nevertheless, in the world of the dull rich--those who hold their +own by might of possession, conformity, owl-eyed sobriety, and +ignorance--Bevy Fleming had become persona non grata. How did she +take all this? With that air of superior consciousness which knows +that no shift of outer material ill-fortune can detract one jot +from an inward mental superiority. The truly individual know +themselves from the beginning and rarely, if ever, doubt. Life +may play fast and loose about them, running like a racing, destructive +tide in and out, but they themselves are like a rock, still, serene, +unmoved. Bevy Fleming felt herself to be so immensely superior +to anything of which she was a part that she could afford to hold +her head high even now Just the same, in order to remedy the +situation she now looked about her with an eye single to a possible +satisfactory marriage. Braxmar had gone for good. He was somewhere +in the East--in China, she heard--his infatuation for her apparently +dead. Kilmer Duelma was gone also--snapped up--an acquisition on +the part of one of those families who did not now receive her. +However, in the drawing-rooms where she still appeared--and what +were they but marriage markets?--one or two affairs did spring up +--tentative approachments on the part of scions of wealth. They +were destined to prove abortive. One of these youths, Pedro Ricer +Marcado, a Brazilian, educated at Oxford, promised much for sincerity +and feeling until he learned that Berenice was poor in her own right +--and what else? Some one had whispered something in his ear. +Again there was a certain William Drake Bowdoin, the son of a +famous old family, who lived on the north side of Washington Square. +After a ball, a morning musicale, and one other affair at which +they met Bowdoin took Berenice to see his mother and sister, who +were charmed. "Oh, you serene divinity!" he said to her, ecstatically, +one day. "Won't you marry me?" Bevy looked at him and wondered. +"Let us wait just a little longer, my dear," she counseled. "I +want you to be sure that you really love me. Shortly thereafter, +meeting an old classmate at a club, Bowdoin was greeted as +follows: + +"Look here, Bowdoin. You're a friend of mine. I see you with +that Miss Fleming. Now, I don't know how far things have gone, +and I don't want to intrude, but are you sure you are aware of all +the aspects of the case?" + +"What do you mean?" demanded Bowdoin. "I want you to speak out." + +"Oh, pardon, old man. No offense, really. You know me. I couldn't. +College--and all that. Just this, though, before you go any +further. Inquire about. You may hear things. If they're true +you ought to know. If not, the talking ought to stop. If I'm +wrong call on me for amends. I hear talk, I tell you. Best +intentions in the world, old man. I do assure you." + +More inquiries. The tongues of jealousy and envy. Mr. Bowdoin +was sure to inherit three million dollars. Then a very necessary +trip to somewhere, and Berenice stared at herself in the glass. +What was it? What were people saying, if anything? This was strange. +Well, she was young and beautiful. There were others. Still, she +might have come to love Bowdoin. He was so airy, artistic in an +unconscious way. Really, she had thought better of him. + +The effect of all this was not wholly depressing. Enigmatic, +disdainful, with a touch of melancholy and a world of gaiety and +courage, Berenice heard at times behind joy the hollow echo of +unreality. Here was a ticklish business, this living. For want +of light and air the finest flowers might die. Her mother's error +was not so inexplicable now. By it had she not, after all, preserved +herself and her family to a certain phase of social superiority? +Beauty was of such substance as dreams are made of, and as fleeting. +Not one's self alone--one's inmost worth, the splendor of one's +dreams--but other things--name, wealth, the presence or absence +of rumor, and of accident--were important. Berenice's lip curled. +But life could be lived. One could lie to the world. Youth is +optimistic, and Berenice, in spite of her splendid mind, was so +young. She saw life as a game, a good chance, that could be played +in many ways. Cowperwood's theory of things began to appeal to +her. One must create one's own career, carve it out, or remain +horribly dull or bored, dragged along at the chariot wheels of +others. If society was so finicky, if men were so dull--well, +there was one thing she could do. She must have life, life--and +money would help some to that end. + +Besides, Cowperwood by degrees was becoming attractive to her; he +really was. He was so much better than most of the others, so +very powerful. She was preternaturally gay, as one who says, +"Victory shall be mine anyhow." + + + + +Chapter LXI + + + +The Cataclysm + +And now at last Chicago is really facing the thing which it has +most feared. A giant monopoly is really reaching out to enfold +it with an octopus-like grip. And Cowperwood is its eyes, its +tentacles, its force! Embedded in the giant strength and good will +of Haeckelheimer, Gotloeb & Co., he is like a monument based on a +rock of great strength. A fifty-year franchise, to be delivered +to him by a majority of forty-eight out of a total of sixty-eight +aldermen (in case the ordinance has to be passed over the mayor's +veto), is all that now stands between him and the realization of +his dreams. What a triumph for his iron policy of courage in the +face of all obstacles! What a tribute to his ability not to flinch +in the face of storm and stress! Other men might have abandoned +the game long before, but not he. What a splendid windfall of +chance that the money element should of its own accord take fright +at the Chicago idea of the municipalization of public privilege +and should hand him this giant South Side system as a reward for +his stern opposition to fol-de-rol theories. + +Through the influence of these powerful advocates he was invited +to speak before various local commercial bodies--the Board of Real +Estate Dealers, the Property Owners' Association, the Merchants' +League, the Bankers' Union, and so forth, where he had an opportunity +to present his case and justify his cause. But the effect of his +suave speechifyings in these quarters was largely neutralized by +newspaper denunciation. "Can any good come out of Nazareth?" was +the regular inquiry. That section of the press formerly beholden +to Hand and Schryhart stood out as bitterly as ever; and most of +the other newspapers, being under no obligation to Eastern capital, +felt it the part of wisdom to support the rank and file. The most +searching and elaborate mathematical examinations were conducted +with a view to showing the fabulous profits of the streetcar trust +in future years. The fine hand of Eastern banking-houses was +detected and their sinister motives noised abroad. "Millions for +everybody in the trust, but not one cent for Chicago," was the +Inquirer's way of putting it. Certain altruists of the community +were by now so aroused that in the destruction of Cowperwood they +saw their duty to God, to humanity, and to democracy straight and +clear. The heavens had once more opened, and they saw a great +light. On the other hand the politicians--those in office outside +the mayor--constituted a petty band of guerrillas or free-booters +who, like hungry swine shut in a pen, were ready to fall upon any +and all propositions brought to their attention with but one end +in view: that they might eat, and eat heartily. In times of great +opportunity and contest for privilege life always sinks to its +lowest depths of materialism and rises at the same time to its +highest reaches of the ideal. When the waves of the sea are most +towering its hollows are most awesome. + +Finally the summer passed, the council assembled, and with the +first breath of autumn chill the very air of the city was touched +by a premonition of contest. Cowperwood, disappointed by the +outcome of his various ingratiatory efforts, decided to fall back +on his old reliable method of bribery. He fixed on his price +--twenty thousand dollars for each favorable vote, to begin with. +Later, if necessary, he would raise it to twenty-five thousand, +or even thirty thousand, making the total cost in the neighborhood +of a million and a half. Yet it was a small price indeed when the +ultimate return was considered. He planned to have his ordinance +introduced by an alderman named Ballenberg, a trusted lieutenant, +and handed thereafter to the clerk, who would read it, whereupon +another henchman would rise to move that it be referred to the +joint committee on streets and alleys, consisting of thirty-four +members drawn from all the standing committees. By this committee +it would be considered for one week in the general council-chamber, +where public hearings would be held. By keeping up a bold front +Cowperwood thought the necessary iron could be put into his followers +to enable them to go through with the scorching ordeal which was +sure to follow. Already aldermen were being besieged at their +homes and in the precincts of the ward clubs and meeting-places. +Their mail was being packed with importuning or threatening letters. +Their very children were being derided, their neighbors urged to +chastise them. Ministers wrote them in appealing or denunciatory +vein. They were spied upon and abused daily in the public prints. +The mayor, shrewd son of battle that he was, realizing that he had +a whip of terror in his hands, excited by the long contest waged, +and by the smell of battle, was not backward in urging the most +drastic remedies. + +"Wait till the thing comes up," he said to his friends, in a great +central music-hall conference in which thousands participated, and +when the matter of ways and means to defeat the venal aldermen was +being discussed. "We have Mr. Cowperwood in a corner, I think. +He cannot do anything for two weeks, once his ordinance is in, and +by that time we shall be able to organize a vigilance committee, +ward meetings, marching clubs, and the like. We ought to organize +a great central mass-meeting for the Sunday night before the Monday +when the bill comes up for final hearing. We want overflow meetings +in every ward at the same time. I tell you, gentlemen, that, while +I believe there are enough honest voters in the city council to +prevent the Cowperwood crowd from passing this bill over my veto, +yet I don't think the matter ought to be allowed to go that far. +You never can tell what these rascals will do once they see an +actual cash bid of twenty or thirty thousand dollars before them. +Most of them, even if they were lucky, would never make the half +of that in a lifetime. They don't expect to be returned to the +Chicago City Council. Once is enough. There are too many others +behind them waiting to get their noses in the trough. Go into +your respective wards and districts and organize meetings. Call +your particular alderman before you. Don't let him evade you or +quibble or stand on his rights as a private citizen or a public +officer. Threaten--don't cajole. Soft or kind words won't go +with that type of man. Threaten, and when you have managed to +extract a promise be on hand with ropes to see that he keeps his +word. I don't like to advise arbitrary methods, but what else is +to be done? The enemy is armed and ready for action right now. +They're just waiting for a peaceful moment. Don't let them find +it. Be ready. Fight. I'm your mayor, and ready to do all I can, +but I stand alone with a mere pitiful veto right. You help me and +I'll help you. You fight for me and I'll fight for you." + +Witness hereafter the discomfiting situation of Mr. Simon Pinski +at 9 P.M. on the second evening following the introduction of the +ordinance, in the ward house of the Fourteenth Ward Democratic +Club. Rotund, flaccid, red-faced, his costume a long black +frock-coat and silk hat, Mr. Pinski was being heckled by his +neighbors and business associates. He had been called here by +threats to answer for his prospective high crimes and misdemeanors. +By now it was pretty well understood that nearly all the present +aldermen were criminal and venal, and in consequence party enmities +were practically wiped out. There were no longer for the time +being Democrats and Republicans, but only pro or anti Cowperwoods +--principally anti. Mr. Pinski, unfortunately, had been singled +out by the Transcript, the Inquirer, and the Chronicle as one of +those open to advance questioning by his constituents. Of mixed +Jewish and American extraction, he had been born and raised in the +Fourteenth and spoke with a decidedly American accent. He was +neither small nor large--sandy-haired, shifty-eyed, cunning, and +on most occasions amiable. Just now he was decidedly nervous, +wrathy, and perplexed, for he had been brought here against his +will. His slightly oleaginous eye--not unlike that of a small +pig--had been fixed definitely and finally on the munificent sum +of thirty thousand dollars, no less, and this local agitation +threatened to deprive him of his almost unalienable right to the +same. His ordeal took place in a large, low-ceiled room illuminated +by five very plain, thin, two-armed gas-jets suspended from the +ceiling and adorned by posters of prizefights, raffles, games, and +the "Simon Pinski Pleasure Association" plastered here and there +freely against dirty, long-unwhitewashed walls. He stood on the +low raised platform at the back of the room, surrounded by a score +or more of his ward henchmen, all more or less reliable, all +black-frocked, or at least in their Sunday clothes; all scowling, +nervous, defensive, red-faced, and fearing trouble. Mr. Pinski +has come armed. This talk of the mayor's concerning guns, ropes, +drums, marching clubs, and the like has been given very wide +publicity, and the public seems rather eager for a Chicago holiday +in which the slaughter of an alderman or so might furnish the +leading and most acceptable feature. + +"Hey, Pinski!" yells some one out of a small sea of new and decidedly +unfriendly faces. (This is no meeting of Pinski followers, but a +conglomerate outpouring of all those elements of a distrait populace +bent on enforcing for once the principles of aldermanic decency. +There are even women here--local church-members, and one or two +advanced civic reformers and W. C. T. U. bar-room smashers. Mr. +Pinski has been summoned to their presence by the threat that if +he didn't come the noble company would seek him out later at his +own house.) + +"Hey, Pinski! You old boodler! How much do you expect to get out +of this traction business?" (This from a voice somewhere in the +rear.) + +Mr. Pinski (turning to one side as if pinched in the neck). "The +man that says I am a boodler is a liar! I never took a dishonest +dollar in my life, and everybody in the Fourteenth Ward knows it." + +The Five Hundred People Assembled. "Ha! ha! ha! Pinski never took +a dollar! Ho! ho! ho! Whoop-ee!" + +Mr. Pinski (very red-faced, rising). "It is so. Why should I +talk to a lot of loafers that come here because the papers tell +them to call me names? I have been an alderman for six years now. +Everybody knows me. + +A Voice. "You call us loafers. You crook!" + +Another Voice (referring to his statement of being known). "You +bet they do!" + +Another Voice (this from a small, bony plumber in workclothes). +"Hey, you old grafter! Which way do you expect to vote? For or +against this franchise? Which way?" + +Still Another Voice (an insurance clerk). "Yes, which way?" + +Mr. Pinski (rising once more, for in his nervousness he is constantly +rising or starting to rise, and then sitting down again). "I have +a right to my own mind, ain't I? I got a right to think. What +for am I an alderman, then? The constitution..." + +An Anti-Pinski Republican (a young law clerk). "To hell with the +constitution! No fine words now, Pinski. Which way do you expect +to vote? For or against? Yes or no?" + +A Voice (that of a bricklayer, anti-Pinski). "He daresn't say. +He's got some of that bastard's money in his jeans now, I'll bet." + +A Voice from Behind (one of Pinski's henchmen--a heavy, pugilistic +Irishman). "Don't let them frighten you, Sim. Stand your ground. +They can't hurt you. We're here." + +Pinski (getting up once more). "This is an outrage, I say. Ain't +I gon' to be allowed to say what I think? There are two sides to +every question. Now, I think whatever the newspapers say that +Cowperwood--" + +A Journeyman Carpenter (a reader of the Inquirer). "You're bribed, +you thief! You're beating about the bush. You want to sell out." + +The Bony Plumber. "Yes, you crook! You want to get away with +thirty thousand dollars, that's what you want, you boodler!" + +Mr. Pinski (defiantly, egged on by voices from behind). "I want +to be fair--that's what. I want to keep my own mind. The +constitution gives everybody the right of free speech--even me. +I insist that the street-car companies have some rights; at the +same time the people have rights too." + +A Voice. "What are those rights?" + +Another Voice. "He don't know. He wouldn't know the people's +rights from a sawmill." + +Another Voice. "Or a load of hay." + +Pinski (continuing very defiantly now, since he has not yet been +slain). "I say the people have their rights. The companies ought +to be made to pay a fair tax. But this twenty-year-franchise idea +is too little, I think. The Mears bill now gives them fifty years, +and I think all told--" + +The Five Hundred (in chorus). "Ho, you robber! You thief! You +boodler! Hang him! Ho! ho! ho! Get a rope!" + +Pinski (retreating within a defensive circle as various citizens +approach him, their eyes blazing, their teeth showing, their fists +clenched). "My friends, wait! Ain't I goin' to be allowed to +finish?" + +A Voice. "We'll finish you, you stiff!" + +A Citizen (advancing; a bearded Pole). "How will you vote, hey? +Tell us that! How? Hey?" + +A Second Citizen (a Jew). "You're a no-good, you robber. I know +you for ten years now already. You cheated me when you were in +the grocery business." + +A Third Citizen (a Swede. In a sing-song voice). "Answer me this, +Mr. Pinski. If a majority of the citizens of the Fourteenth Ward +don't want you to vote for it, will you still vote for it?" + +Pinski (hesitating). + +The Five Hundred. "Ho! look at the scoundrel! He's afraid to say. +He don't know whether he'll do what the people of this ward want +him to do. Kill him! Brain him!" + +A Voice from Behind. "Aw, stand up, Pinski. Don't be afraid." +Pinski (terrorized as the five hundred make a rush for the stage). +"If the people don't want me to do it, of course I won't do it. +Why should I? Ain't I their representative?" + +A Voice. "Yes, when you think you're going to get the wadding +kicked out of you." + +Another Voice. "You wouldn't be honest with your mother, you +bastard. You couldn't be!" + +Pinski. "If one-half the voters should ask me not to do it I +wouldn't do it." + +A Voice. "Well, we'll get the voters to ask you, all right. We'll +get nine-tenths of them to sign before to-morrow night." + +An Irish-American (aged twenty-six; a gas collector; coming close +to Pinski). "If you don't vote right we'll hang you, and I'll be +there to help pull the rope myself." + +One of Pinski's Lieutenants. "Say, who is that freshie? We want +to lay for him. One good kick in the right place will just about +finish him." + +The Gas Collector. "Not from you, you carrot-faced terrier. Come +outside and see." (Business of friends interfering). + +The meeting becomes disorderly. Pinski is escorted out by friends +--completely surrounded--amid shrieks and hisses, cat-calls, cries +of "Boodler!" "Thief!" "Robber!" + +There were many such little dramatic incidents after the ordinance +had been introduced. + +Henceforth on the streets, in the wards and outlying sections, and +even, on occasion, in the business heart, behold the marching +clubs--those sinister, ephemeral organizations which on demand of +the mayor had cropped out into existence--great companies of the +unheralded, the dull, the undistinguished--clerks, working-men, +small business men, and minor scions of religion or morality; all +tramping to and fro of an evening, after working-hours, assembling +in cheap halls and party club-houses, and drilling themselves to +what end? That they might march to the city hall on the fateful +Monday night when the street-railway ordinances should be up for +passage and demand of unregenerate lawmakers that they do their +duty. Cowperwood, coming down to his office one morning on his +own elevated lines, was the observer of a button or badge worn +upon the coat lapel of stolid, inconsequential citizens who sat +reading their papers, unconscious of that presence which epitomized +the terror and the power they all feared. One of these badges had +for its device a gallows with a free noose suspended; another was +blazoned with the query: "Are we going to be robbed?" On sign-boards, +fences, and dead walls huge posters, four by six feet in dimension, +were displayed. + + WALDEN H. LUCAS + + against the + + BOODLERS + =========================== + Every citizen of Chicago should + come down to the City Hall + + TO-NIGHT + MONDAY, DEC. 12 + =========================== + and every Monday night + thereafter while the Street-car + Franchises are under consideration, + and see that the interests + of the city are protected against + + BOODLEISM + ========= + Citizens, Arouse and Defeat the Boodlers! + +In the papers were flaring head-lines; in the clubs, halls, and +churches fiery speeches could nightly be heard. Men were drunk +now with a kind of fury of contest. They would not succumb to +this Titan who was bent on undoing them. They would not be devoured +by this gorgon of the East. He should be made to pay an honest +return to the city or get out. No fifty-year franchise should be +granted him. The Mears law must be repealed, and he must come +into the city council humble and with clean hands. No alderman +who received as much as a dollar for his vote should in this +instance be safe with his life. + +Needless to say that in the face of such a campaign of intimidation +only great courage could win. The aldermen were only human. In +the council committee-chamber Cowperwood went freely among them, +explaining as he best could the justice of his course and making +it plain that, although willing to buy his rights, he looked on +them as no more than his due. The rule of the council was barter, +and he accepted it. His unshaken and unconquerable defiance +heartened his followers greatly, and the thought of thirty thousand +dollars was as a buttress against many terrors. At the same time +many an alderman speculated solemnly as to what he would do afterward +and where he would go once he had sold out. + +At last the Monday night arrived which was to bring the final test +of strength. Picture the large, ponderous structure of black +granite--erected at the expense of millions and suggesting somewhat +the somnolent architecture of ancient Egypt--which served as the +city hall and county court-house combined. On this evening the +four streets surrounding it were packed with thousands of people. +To this throng Cowperwood has become an astounding figure: his +wealth fabulous, his heart iron, his intentions sinister--the +acme of cruel, plotting deviltry. Only this day, the Chronicle, +calculating well the hour and the occasion, has completely covered +one of its pages with an intimate, though exaggerated, description +of Cowperwood's house in New York: his court of orchids, his sunrise +room, the baths of pink and blue alabaster, the finishings of +marble and intaglio. Here Cowperwood was represented as seated +in a swinging divan, his various books, art treasures, and +comforts piled about him. The idea was vaguely suggested that in +his sybaritic hours odalesques danced before him and unnamable +indulgences and excesses were perpetrated. + +At this same hour in the council-chamber itself were assembling +as hungry and bold a company of gray wolves as was ever gathered +under one roof. The room was large, ornamented to the south by +tall windows, its ceiling supporting a heavy, intricate chandelier, +its sixty-six aldermanic desks arranged in half-circles, one behind +the other; its woodwork of black oak carved and highly polished; +its walls a dark blue-gray decorated with arabesques in gold--thus +giving to all proceedings an air of dignity and stateliness. Above +the speaker's head was an immense portrait in oil of a former mayor +--poorly done, dusty, and yet impressive. The size and character +of the place gave on ordinary occasions a sort of resonance to the +voices of the speakers. To-night through the closed windows could +be heard the sound of distant drums and marching feet. In the +hall outside the council door were packed at least a thousand men +with ropes, sticks, a fife-and-drum corps which occasionally struck +up "Hail! Columbia, Happy Land," "My Country, "Tis of Thee," and +"Dixie." Alderman Schlumbohm, heckled to within an inch of his +life, followed to the council door by three hundred of his +fellow-citizens, was there left with the admonition that they would +be waiting for him when he should make his exit. He was at last +seriously impressed. + +"What is this?" he asked of his neighbor and nearest associate, +Alderman Gavegan, when he gained the safety of his seat. "A free +country?" + +"Search me!" replied his compatriot, wearily. "I never seen such +a band as I have to deal with out in the Twentieth. Why, my God! +a man can't call his name his own any more out here. It's got so +now the newspapers tell everybody what to do." + +Alderman Pinski and Alderman Hoherkorn, conferring together in one +corner, were both very dour. "I'll tell you what, Joe," said +Pinski to his confrere; "it's this fellow Lucas that has got the +people so stirred up. I didn't go home last night because I didn't +want those fellows to follow me down there. Me and my wife stayed +down-town. But one of the boys was over here at Jake's a little +while ago, and he says there must 'a' been five hundred people +around my house at six o'clock, already. Whad ye think o' that?" + +"Same here. I don't take much stock in this lynching idea. Still, +you can't tell. I don't know whether the police could help us +much or not. It's a damned outrage. Cowperwood has a fair +proposition. What's the matter with them, anyhow?" + +Renewed sounds of "Marching Through Georgia" from without. + +Enter at this time Aldermen Ziner, Knudson, Revere, Rogers, Tiernan, +and Kerrigan. Of all the aldermen perhaps Messrs. Tiernan and +Kerrigan were as cool as any. Still the spectacle of streets +blocked with people who carried torches and wore badges showing +slip-nooses attached to a gallows was rather serious. + +"I'll tell you, Pat," said "Smiling Mike," as they eventually made +the door through throngs of jeering citizens; "it does look a +little rough. Whad ye think?" + +"To hell with them!" replied Kerrigan, angry, waspish, determined. +"They don't run me or my ward. I'll vote as I damn please." + +"Same here," replied Tiernan, with a great show of courage. "That +goes for me. But it's putty warm, anyhow, eh?" + +"Yes, it's warm, all right," replied Kerrigan, suspicious lest his +companion in arms might be weakening, "but that'll never make a +quitter out of me." + +"Nor me, either," replied the Smiling One. + +Enter now the mayor, accompanied by a fife-and-drum corps rendering +"Hail to the Chief." He ascends the rostrum. Outside in the halls +the huzzas of the populace. In the gallery overhead a picked +audience. As the various aldermen look up they contemplate a sea +of unfriendly faces. "Get on to the mayor's guests," commented +one alderman to another, cynically. + +A little sparring for time while minor matters are considered, and +the gallery is given opportunity for comment on the various communal +lights, identifying for itself first one local celebrity and then +another. "There's Johnnie Dowling, that big blond fellow with the +round head; there's Pinski--look at the little rat; there's Kerrigan. +Get on to the emerald. Eh, Pat, how's the jewelry? You won't get +any chance to do any grafting to-night, Pat. You won't pass no +ordinance to-night." + +Alderman Winkler (pro-Cowperwood). "If the chair pleases, I think +something ought to be done to restore order in the gallery and +keep these proceedings from being disturbed. It seems to me an +outrage, that, on an occasion of this kind, when the interests of +the people require the most careful attention--" + +A Voice. "The interests of the people!" + +Another Voice. "Sit down. You're bought!" + +Alderman Winkler. "If the chair pleases--" + +The Mayor. "I shall have to ask the audience in the gallery to +keep quiet in order that the business in hand may be considered." +(Applause, and the gallery lapses into silence.) + +Alderman Guigler (to Alderman Sumulsky). "Well trained, eh?" + +Alderman Ballenberg (pro-Cowperwood, getting up--large, brown, +florid, smooth-faced). "Before calling up an ordinance which bears +my name I should like to ask permission of the council to make a +statement. When I introduced this ordinance last week I said--" + +A Voice. "We know what you said." + +Alderman Ballenberg. "I said that I did so by request. I want +to explain that it was at the request of a number of gentlemen who +have since appeared before the committee of this council that now +has this ordinance--" + +A Voice. "That's all right, Ballenberg. We know by whose request +you introduced it. You've said your little say." + +Alderman Ballenberg. "If the chair pleases--" + +A Voice. "Sit down, Ballenberg. Give some other boodler a chance." + +The Mayor. "Will the gallery please stop interrupting." + +Alderman Horanek (jumping to his feet). "This is an outrage. The +gallery is packed with people come here to intimidate us. Here +is a great public corporation that has served this city for years, +and served it well, and when it comes to this body with a sensible +proposition we ain't even allowed to consider it. The mayor packs +the gallery with his friends, and the papers stir up people to come +down here by thousands and try to frighten us. I for one--" + +A Voice. "What's the matter, Billy? Haven't you got your money +yet?" + +Alderman Hvranek (Polish-American, intelligent, even artistic +looking, shaking his fist at the gallery). "You dare not come +down here and say that, you coward!" + +A Chorus of Fifty Voices. "Rats!" (also) "Billy, you ought to +have wings." + +Alderman Tiernan (rising). "I say now, Mr. Mayor, don't you think +we've had enough of this?" + +A Voice. "Well, look who's here. If it ain't Smiling Mike." + +Another Voice. "How much do you expect to get, Mike?" + +Alderman Tiernan (turning to gallery). "I want to say I can lick +any man that wants to come down here and talk to me to my face. +I'm not afraid of no ropes and no guns. These corporations have +done everything for the city--" + +A Voice. "Aw!" + +Alderman Tiernan. "If it wasn't for the street-car companies we +wouldn't have any city." + +Ten Voices. "Aw!" + +Alderman Tiernan (bravely). "My mind ain't the mind of some people." + +A Voice. "I should say not." + +Alderman Tiernan. "I'm talking for compensation for the privileges +we expect to give." + +A Voice. "You're talking for your pocket-book." + +Alderman Tiernan. "I don't give a damn for these cheap skates and +cowards in the gallery. I say treat these corporations right. +They have helped make the city." + +A Chorus of Fifty Voices. "Aw! You want to treat yourself right, +that's what you want. You vote right to-night or you'll be sorry." + +By now the various aldermen outside of the most hardened characters +were more or less terrified by the grilling contest. It could do +no good to battle with this gallery or the crowd outside. Above +them sat the mayor, before them reporters, ticking in shorthand +every phrase and word. "I don't see what we can do," said Alderman +Pinski to Alderman Hvranek, his neighbor. "It looks to me as if +we might just as well not try." + +At this point arose Alderman Gilleran, small, pale, intelligent, +anti-Cowperwood. By prearrangement he had been scheduled to bring +the second, and as it proved, the final test of strength to the +issue. "If the chair pleases," he said, "I move that the vote by +which the Ballenberg fifty-year ordinance was referred to the joint +committee of streets and alleys be reconsidered, and that instead +it be referred to the committee on city hall." + +This was a committee that hitherto had always been considered by +members of council as of the least importance. Its principal +duties consisted in devising new names for streets and regulating +the hours of city-hall servants. There were no perquisites, no +graft. In a spirit of ribald defiance at the organization of the +present session all the mayor's friends--the reformers--those who +could not be trusted--had been relegated to this committee. Now +it was proposed to take this ordinance out of the hands of friends +and send it here, from whence unquestionably it would never reappear. +The great test had come. + +Alderman Hoberkorn (mouthpiece for his gang because the most skilful +in a parliamentary sense). "The vote cannot be reconsidered." He +begins a long explanation amid hisses. + +A Voice. "How much have you got?" + +A Second Voice. "You've been a boodler all your life." + +Alderman Hoberkorn (turning to the gallery, a light of defiance +in his eye). "You come here to intimidate us, but you can't do +it. You're too contemptible to notice." + +A Voice. "You hear the drums, don't you?" + +A Second Voice. "Vote wrong, Hoberkorn, and see. We know you." + +Alderman Tiernan (to himself). "Say, that's pretty rough, ain't +it?" + +The Mayor. "Motion overruled. The point is not well taken." + +Alderman Guigler (rising a little puzzled). "Do we vote now on +the Gilleran resolution?" + +A Voice. "You bet you do, and you vote right." + +The Mayor. "Yes. The clerk will call the roll." + +The Clerk (reading the names, beginning with the A's). "Altvast?" +(pro-Cowperwood). + +Alderman Altvast. "Yea." Fear had conquered him. + +Alderman Tiernan (to Alderman Kerrigan). "Well, there's one baby +down." + +Alderman Kerrigan. "Yep." + +"Ballenberg?" (Pro-Cowperwood; the man who had introduced the +ordinance.) + +"Yea." + +Alderman Tiernan. "Say, has Ballenberg weakened?" + +Alderman Kerrigan. "It looks that way." + +"Canna?" + +"Yea." + +"Fogarty?" + +"Yea." + +Alderman Tiernan (nervously). "There goes Fogarty." + +"Hvranek?" + +"Yea." + +Alderman Tiernan. "And Hvranek!" + +Alderman Kerrigan (referring to the courage of his colleagues). +"It's coming out of their hair." + +In exactly eighty seconds the roll-call was in and Cowperwood had +lost--41 to 25. It was plain that the ordinance could never be +revived. + + + + +Chapter LXII + + + +The Recompense + +You have seen, perhaps, a man whose heart was weighted by a great +woe. You have seen the eye darken, the soul fag, and the spirit +congeal under the breath of an icy disaster. At ten-thirty of +this particular evening Cowperwood, sitting alone in the library +of his Michigan Avenue house, was brought face to face with the +fact that he had lost. He had built so much on the cast of this +single die. It was useless to say to himself that he could go +into the council a week later with a modified ordinance or could +wait until the storm had died out. He refused himself these +consolations. Already he had battled so long and so vigorously, +by every resource and subtlety which his mind had been able to +devise. All week long on divers occasions he had stood in the +council-chamber where the committee had been conducting its hearings. +Small comfort to know that by suits, injunctions, appeals, and +writs to intervene he could tie up this transit situation and leave +it for years and years the prey of lawyers, the despair of the +city, a hopeless muddle which would not be unraveled until he and +his enemies should long be dead. This contest had been so long +in the brewing, he had gone about it with such care years before. +And now the enemy had been heartened by a great victory. His +aldermen, powerful, hungry, fighting men all--like those picked +soldiers of the ancient Roman emperors--ruthless, conscienceless, +as desperate as himself, had in their last redoubt of personal +privilege fallen, weakened, yielded. How could he hearten them to +another struggle--how face the blazing wrath of a mighty populace +that had once learned how to win? Others might enter here +--Haeckelheimer, Fishel, any one of a half-dozen Eastern giants +--and smooth out the ruffled surface of the angry sea that he had +blown to fury. But as for him, he was tired, sick of Chicago, +sick of this interminable contest. Only recently he had promised +himself that if he were to turn this great trick he would never +again attempt anything so desperate or requiring so much effort. +He would not need to. The size of his fortune made it of little +worth. Besides, in spite of his tremendous vigor, he was getting +on. + +Since he had alienated Aileen he was quite alone, out of touch +with any one identified with the earlier years of his life. His +all-desired Berenice still evaded him. True, she had shown lately +a kind of warming sympathy; but what was it? Gracious tolerance, +perhaps--a sense of obligation? Certainly little more, he felt. +He looked into the future, deciding heavily that he must fight on, +whatever happened, and then-- + +While he sat thus drearily pondering, answering a telephone call +now and then, the door-bell rang and the servant brought a card +which he said had been presented by a young woman who declared +that it would bring immediate recognition. Glancing at it, +Cowperwood jumped to his feet and hurried down-stairs into the one +presence he most craved. + +There are compromises of the spirit too elusive and subtle to be +traced in all their involute windings. From that earliest day +when Berenice Fleming had first set eyes on Cowperwood she had +been moved by a sense of power, an amazing and fascinating +individuality. Since then by degrees he had familiarized her with +a thought of individual freedom of action and a disregard of current +social standards which were destructive to an earlier conventional +view of things. Following him through this Chicago fight, she had +been caught by the wonder of his dreams; he was on the way toward +being one of the world's greatest money giants. During his recent +trips East she had sometimes felt that she was able to read in the +cast of his face the intensity of this great ambition, which had +for its ultimate aim--herself. So he had once assured her. Always +with her he had been so handsome, so pleading, so patient. + +So here she was in Chicago to-night, the guest of friends at the +Richelieu, and standing in Cowperwood's presence. + +"Why, Berenice!" he said, extending a cordial hand. + +"When did you arrive in town? Whatever brings you here?" He had +once tried to make her promise that if ever her feeling toward him +changed she would let him know of it in some way. And here she +was to-night--on what errand? He noted her costume of brown silk +and velvet--how well it seemed to suggest her cat-like grace! + +"You bring me here," she replied, with an indefinable something +in her voice which was at once a challenge and a confession. "I +thought from what I had just been reading that you might really +need me now." + +"You mean--?" he inquired, looking at her with vivid eyes. There +he paused. + +"That I have made up my mind. Besides, I ought to pay some time." + +"Berenice!" be exclaimed, reproachfully. + +"No, I don't mean that, either," she replied. "I am sorry now. +I think I understand you better. Besides,"she added, with a sudden +gaiety that had a touch of self-consolation in it, "I want to." + +"Berenice! Truly?" + +"Can't you tell?" she queried. + +"Well, then," he smiled, holding out his hands; and, to his +amazement, she came forward. + +"I can't explain myself to myself quite," she added, in a hurried +low, eager tone, "but I couldn't stay away any longer. I had the +feeling that you might be going to lose here for the present. But +I want you to go somewhere else if you have to--London or Paris. +The world won't understand us quite--but I do." + +"Berenice!" He smothered her cheek and hair. + +"Not so close, please. And there aren't to be any other ladies, +unless you want me to change my mind." + +"Not another one, as I hope to keep you. You will share everything +I have. . ." + +For answer-- + +How strange are realities as opposed to illusion! + + + + +In Retrospect + + + +The world is dosed with too much religion. Life is to be learned +from life, and the professional moralist is at best but a manufacturer +of shoddy wares. At the ultimate remove, God or the life force, +if anything, is an equation, and at its nearest expression for man +--the contract social--it is that also. Its method of expression +appears to be that of generating the individual, in all his glittering +variety and scope, and through him progressing to the mass with its +problems. In the end a balance is invariably struck wherein the +mass subdues the individual or the individual the mass--for the +time being. For, behold, the sea is ever dancing or raging. + +In the mean time there have sprung up social words and phrases +expressing a need of balance--of equation. These are right, +justice, truth, morality, an honest mind, a pure heart--all words +meaning: a balance must be struck. The strong must not be too +strong; the weak not too weak. But without variation how could +the balance be maintained? Nirvana! Nirvana! The ultimate, still, +equation. + +Rushing like a great comet to the zenith, his path a blazing trail, +Cowperwood did for the hour illuminate the terrors and wonders of +individuality. But for him also the eternal equation--the pathos +of the discovery that even giants are but pygmies, and that an +ultimate balance must be struck. Of the strange, tortured, terrified +reflection of those who, caught in his wake, were swept from the +normal and the commonplace, what shall we say? Legislators by the +hundred, who were hounded from politics into their graves; a +half-hundred aldermen of various councils who were driven grumbling +or whining into the limbo of the dull, the useless, the commonplace. +A splendid governor dreaming of an ideal on the one hand, succumbing +to material necessity on the other, traducing the spirit that aided +him the while he tortured himself with his own doubts. A second +governor, more amenable, was to be greeted by the hisses of the +populace, to retire brooding and discomfited, and finally to take +his own life. Schryhart and Hand, venomous men both, unable to +discover whether they had really triumphed, were to die eventually, +puzzled. A mayor whose greatest hour was in thwarting one who +contemned him, lived to say: "It is a great mystery. He was a +strange man." A great city struggled for a score of years to +untangle that which was all but beyond the power of solution--a +true Gordian knot. + +And this giant himself, rushing on to new struggles and new +difficulties in an older land, forever suffering the goad of a +restless heart--for him was no ultimate peace, no real understanding, +but only hunger and thirst and wonder. Wealth, wealth, wealth! A +new grasp of a new great problem and its eventual solution. Anew +the old urgent thirst for life, and only its partial quenchment. +In Dresden a palace for one woman, in Rome a second for another. +In London a third for his beloved Berenice, the lure of beauty +ever in his eye. The lives of two women wrecked, a score of victims +despoiled; Berenice herself weary, yet brilliant, turning to others +for recompense for her lost youth. And he resigned, and yet +not--loving, understanding, doubting, caught at last by the drug +of a personality which he could not gainsay. + +What shall we say of life in the last analysis--"Peace, be still"? +Or shall we battle sternly for that equation which we know will +be maintained whether we battle or no, in order that the strong +become not too strong or the weak not too weak? Or perchance shall +we say (sick of dullness): "Enough of this. I will have strong +meat or die!" And die? Or live? + +Each according to his temperament--that something which he has not +made and cannot always subdue, and which may not always be subdued +by others for him. Who plans the steps that lead lives on to +splendid glories, or twist them into gnarled sacrifices, or make +of them dark, disdainful, contentious tragedies? The soul within? +And whence comes it? Of God? + +What thought engendered the spirit of Circe, or gave to a Helen +the lust of tragedy? What lit the walls of Troy? Or prepared the +woes of an Andromache? By what demon counsel was the fate of Hamlet +prepared? And why did the weird sisters plan ruin to the murderous +Scot? + +Double, double toil and trouble, +Fire burn and cauldron bubble. + +In a mulch of darkness are bedded the roots of endless sorrows--and +of endless joys. Canst thou fix thine eye on the morning? Be glad. +And if in the ultimate it blind thee, be glad also! Thou hast lived. + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Titan, by Theodore Dreiser + diff --git a/old/titan10.zip b/old/titan10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3ac5b56 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/titan10.zip |