ect of the prejudice of those who might not
care to do business with an ex-convict, he was going to act as general
outside man, and floor man on 'charge, for Wingate & Co. His practical
control of that could not be publicly proved. Now for some important
development in the market--some slump or something. He would show the
world whether he was a failure or not.

They let him down in front of his wife's little cottage, and he entered
briskly in the gathering gloom.

On September 18, 1873, at twelve-fifteen of a brilliant autumn day, in
the city of Philadelphia, one of the most startling financial tragedies
that the world has ever seen had its commencement. The banking house of
Jay Cooke & Co., the foremost financial organization of America, doing
business at Number 114 South Third Street in Philadelphia, and with
branches in New York, Washington, and London, closed its doors. Those
who know anything about the financial crises of the United States know
well the significance of the panic which followed. It is spoken of in
all histories as the panic of 1873, and the widespread ruin and disaster
which followed was practically unprecedented in American history.

At this time Cowperwood, once more a broker--ostensibly a broker's
agent--was doing business in South Third Street, and representing
Wingate & Co. on 'change. During the six months which had elapsed
since he had emerged from the Eastern Penitentiary he had been quietly
resuming financial, if not social, relations with those who had known
him before.

Furthermore, Wingate & Co. were prospering, and had been for some time,
a fact which redounded to his credit with those who knew. Ostensibly he
lived with his wife in a small house on North Twenty-first Street. In
reality he occupied a bachelor apartment on North Fifteenth Street, to
which Aileen occasionally repaired. The difference between himself and
his wife had now become a matter of common knowledge in the family, and,
although there were some faint efforts made to smooth the matter over,
no good resulted. The difficulties of the past two years had so inured
his parents to expect the untoward and exceptional that, astonishing as
this was, it did not shock them so much as it would have years before.
They were too much frightened by life to quarrel with its weird
developments. They could only hope and pray for the best.

The Butler family, on the other hand, what there was of it, had become
indifferent to Aileen'