The Titan 5 страница

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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

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