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" 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

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