The Titan 6 страница

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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

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