emperament, of
course, suggested almost undue luxury, the bangles, anklets, ear-rings,
and breast-plates of the odalisque, and yet, of course, they were not
there. She confessed to him years afterward that she would have loved
to have stained her nails and painted the palms of her hands with
madder-red. Healthy and vigorous, she was chronically interested in
men--what they would think of her--and how she compared with other
women.

The fact that she could ride in a carriage, live in a fine home on
Girard Avenue, visit such homes as those of the Cowperwoods and others,
was of great weight; and yet, even at this age, she realized that life
was more than these things. Many did not have them and lived.

But these facts of wealth and advantage gripped her; and when she sat at
the piano and played or rode in her carriage or walked or stood before
her mirror, she was conscious of her figure, her charms, what they
meant to men, how women envied her. Sometimes she looked at poor,
hollow-chested or homely-faced girls and felt sorry for them; at other
times she flared into inexplicable opposition to some handsome girl or
woman who dared to brazen her socially or physically. There were such
girls of the better families who, in Chestnut Street, in the expensive
shops, or on the drive, on horseback or in carriages, tossed their heads
and indicated as well as human motions can that they were better-bred
and knew it. When this happened each stared defiantly at the other. She
wanted ever so much to get up in the world, and yet namby-pamby men
of better social station than herself did not attract her at all. She
wanted a man. Now and then there was one "something like," but not
entirely, who appealed to her, but most of them were politicians or
legislators, acquaintances of her father, and socially nothing at
all--and so they wearied and disappointed her. Her father did not know
the truly elite. But Mr. Cowperwood--he seemed so refined, so forceful,
and so reserved. She often looked at Mrs. Cowperwood and thought how
fortunate she was.

Chapter XIV

The development of Cowperwood as Cowperwood & Co. following his
arresting bond venture, finally brought him into relationship with one
man who was to play an important part in his life, morally,
financially, and in other ways. This was George W. Stener, the new city
treasurer-elect, who, to begin with, was a puppet in the hands of
other men, but who, also in spite of this fact,