of the architecture of the
time. It was fifty feet wide, four stories tall, of graystone and with
four wide, white stone steps leading up to the door. The window arches,
framed in white, had U-shaped keystones. There were curtains of lace and
a glimpse of red plush through the windows, which gleamed warm against
the cold and snow outside. A trim Irish maid came to the door and he
gave her his card and was invited into the house.

"Is Mr. Butler home?"

"I'm not sure, sir. I'll find out. He may have gone out."

In a little while he was asked to come upstairs, where he found Butler
in a somewhat commercial-looking room. It had a desk, an office chair,
some leather furnishings, and a bookcase, but no completeness or
symmetry as either an office or a living room. There were several
pictures on the wall--an impossible oil painting, for one thing, dark
and gloomy; a canal and barge scene in pink and nile green for another;
some daguerreotypes of relatives and friends which were not half bad.
Cowperwood noticed one of two girls, one with reddish-gold hair, another
with what appeared to be silky brown. The beautiful silver effect of the
daguerreotype had been tinted. They were pretty girls, healthy, smiling,
Celtic, their heads close together, their eyes looking straight out
at you. He admired them casually, and fancied they must be Butler's
daughters.

"Mr. Cowperwood?" inquired Butler, uttering the name fully with a
peculiar accent on the vowels. (He was a slow-moving man, solemn and
deliberate.) Cowperwood noticed that his body was hale and strong like
seasoned hickory, tanned by wind and rain. The flesh of his cheeks was
pulled taut and there was nothing soft or flabby about him.

"I'm that man."

"I have a little matter of stocks to talk over with you" ("matter"
almost sounded like "mather"), "and I thought you'd better come here
rather than that I should come down to your office. We can be more
private-like, and, besides, I'm not as young as I used to be."

He allowed a semi-twinkle to rest in his eye as he looked his visitor
over.

Cowperwood smiled.

"Well, I hope I can be of service to you," he said, genially.

"I happen to be interested just at present in pickin' up certain
street-railway stocks on 'change. I'll tell you about them later. Won't
you have somethin' to drink? It's a cold morning."

"No, thanks; I never drink."

"Never? That's a hard word when it comes to whisky. Well, no matter.
It's a go