these things
intelligently, but while she pretended slightly, she could not really
see or care, and it was very plain that she could not.

The children took up a great deal of her time. However, Cowperwood was
not troubled about this. It struck him as delightful and exceedingly
worth while that she should be so devoted. At the same time, her
lethargic manner, vague smile and her sometimes seeming indifference,
which sprang largely from a sense of absolute security, attracted him
also. She was so different from him! She took her second marriage quite
as she had taken her first--a solemn fact which contained no possibility
of mental alteration. As for himself, however, he was bustling about in
a world which, financially at least, seemed all alteration--there were
so many sudden and almost unheard-of changes. He began to look at her
at times, with a speculative eye--not very critically, for he liked
her--but with an attempt to weigh her personality. He had known her
five years and more now. What did he know about her? The vigor of
youth--those first years--had made up for so many things, but now that
he had her safely...

There came in this period the slow approach, and finally the
declaration, of war between the North and the South, attended with so
much excitement that almost all current minds were notably colored by
it. It was terrific. Then came meetings, public and stirring, and riots;
the incident of John Brown's body; the arrival of Lincoln, the great
commoner, on his way from Springfield, Illinois, to Washington via
Philadelphia, to take the oath of office; the battle of Bull Run; the
battle of Vicksburg; the battle of Gettysburg, and so on. Cowperwood was
only twenty-five at the time, a cool, determined youth, who thought the
slave agitation might be well founded in human rights--no doubt was--but
exceedingly dangerous to trade. He hoped the North would win; but it
might go hard with him personally and other financiers. He did not
care to fight. That seemed silly for the individual man to do. Others
might--there were many poor, thin-minded, half-baked creatures who would
put themselves up to be shot; but they were only fit to be commanded or
shot down. As for him, his life was sacred to himself and his family and
his personal interests. He recalled seeing, one day, in one of the quiet
side streets, as the working-men were coming home from their work, a
small enlisting squad of soldiers in blue marching enthusiast