e chalice, and the high, white altar set with candles
soothing his troubled feelings.

He came out of the church after a time and returned home. Aileen did not
appear at dinner, and he could not eat. He went into his private room
and shut the door--thinking, thinking, thinking. The dreadful spectacle
of Aileen in a house of ill repute burned in his brain. To think that
Cowperwood should have taken her to such a place--his Aileen, his
and his wife's pet. In spite of his prayers, his uncertainty, her
opposition, the puzzling nature of the situation, she must be got out
of this. She must go away for a while, give the man up, and then the law
should run its course with him. In all likelihood Cowperwood would go to
the penitentiary--if ever a man richly deserved to go, it was he. Butler
would see that no stone was left unturned. He would make it a personal
issue, if necessary. All he had to do was to let it be known in judicial
circles that he wanted it so. He could not suborn a jury, that would
be criminal; but he could see that the case was properly and forcefully
presented; and if Cowperwood were convicted, Heaven help him. The appeal
of his financial friends would not save him. The judges of the lower and
superior courts knew on which side their bread was buttered. They would
strain a point in favor of the highest political opinion of the day, and
he certainly could influence that. Aileen meanwhile was contemplating
the peculiar nature of her situation. In spite of their silence on the
way home, she knew that a conversation was coming with her father.
It had to be. He would want her to go somewhere. Most likely he would
revive the European trip in some form--she now suspected the invitation
of Mrs. Mollenhauer as a trick; and she had to decide whether she would
go. Would she leave Cowperwood just when he was about to be tried? She
was determined she would not. She wanted to see what was going to happen
to him. She would leave home first--run to some relative, some friend,
some stranger, if necessary, and ask to be taken in. She had some
money--a little. Her father had always been very liberal with her. She
could take a few clothes and disappear. They would be glad enough
to send for her after she had been gone awhile. Her mother would be
frantic; Norah and Callum and Owen would be beside themselves with
wonder and worry; her father--she could see him. Maybe that would bring
him to his senses. In spite of all her emotional