stance
of these men confront her.

It was a foolish scheme, a brutalizing thing to do, both from the point
of view of affection and any corrective theory he might have had. No
good ever springs from violence. But Butler did not see that. He wanted
to frighten Aileen, to bring her by shock to a realization of the
enormity of the offense she was committing. He waited fully a week after
his word had been given; and then, one afternoon, when his nerves were
worn almost thin from fretting, the climax came. Cowperwood had already
been indicted, and was now awaiting trial. Aileen had been bringing him
news, from time to time, of just how she thought her father was feeling
toward him. She did not get this evidence direct from Butler, of
course--he was too secretive, in so far as she was concerned, to let
her know how relentlessly he was engineering Cowperwood's final
downfall--but from odd bits confided to Owen, who confided them to
Callum, who in turn, innocently enough, confided them to Aileen. For
one thing, she had learned in this way of the new district attorney
elect--his probable attitude--for he was a constant caller at the Butler
house or office. Owen had told Callum that he thought Shannon was going
to do his best to send Cowperwood "up"--that the old man thought he
deserved it.

In the next place she had learned that her father did not want
Cowperwood to resume business--did not feel he deserved to be allowed
to. "It would be a God's blessing if the community were shut of him,"
he had said to Owen one morning, apropos of a notice in the papers of
Cowperwood's legal struggles; and Owen had asked Callum why he thought
the old man was so bitter. The two sons could not understand it.
Cowperwood heard all this from her, and more--bits about Judge
Payderson, the judge who was to try him, who was a friend of
Butler's--also about the fact that Stener might be sent up for the full
term of his crime, but that he would be pardoned soon afterward.

Apparently Cowperwood was not very much frightened. He told her that
he had powerful financial friends who would appeal to the governor to
pardon him in case he was convicted; and, anyhow, that he did not think
that the evidence was strong enough to convict him. He was merely a
political scapegoat through public clamor and her father's influence;
since the latter's receipt of the letter about them he had been the
victim of Butler's enmity, and nothing more. "If it weren't for your