ttle time, as he grew more and more in sympathy with
Aileen, he was not so disturbed as to whether his wife might suspect
or not. He began to think on occasion, as his mind followed the various
ramifications of the situation, that it would be better if she did. She
was really not of the contentious fighting sort. He now decided because
of various calculations in regard to her character that she might not
offer as much resistance to some ultimate rearrangement, as he had
originally imagined. She might even divorce him. Desire, dreams, even
in him were evoking calculations not as sound as those which ordinarily
generated in his brain.

No, as he now said to himself, the rub was not nearly so much in his own
home, as it was in the Butler family. His relations with Edward Malia
Butler had become very intimate. He was now advising with him constantly
in regard to the handling of his securities, which were numerous.
Butler held stocks in such things as the Pennsylvania Coal Company,
the Delaware and Hudson Canal, the Morris and Essex Canal, the Reading
Railroad. As the old gentleman's mind had broadened to the significance
of the local street-railway problem in Philadelphia, he had decided to
close out his other securities at such advantageous terms as he could,
and reinvest the money in local lines. He knew that Mollenhauer
and Simpson were doing this, and they were excellent judges of the
significance of local affairs. Like Cowperwood, he had the idea that if
he controlled sufficient of the local situation in this field, he
could at last effect a joint relationship with Mollenhauer and Simpson.
Political legislation, advantageous to the combined lines, could then
be so easily secured. Franchises and necessary extensions to existing
franchises could be added. This conversion of his outstanding stock
in other fields, and the picking up of odd lots in the local
street-railway, was the business of Cowperwood. Butler, through his
sons, Owen and Callum, was also busy planning a new line and obtaining a
franchise, sacrificing, of course, great blocks of stock and actual cash
to others, in order to obtain sufficient influence to have the necessary
legislation passed. Yet it was no easy matter, seeing that others knew
what the general advantages of the situation were, and because of this
Cowperwood, who saw the great source of profit here, was able, betimes,
to serve himself--buying blocks, a part of which only went to Butler,
Molle