o increase their circulation, by attacking
him. He frankly admitted the fact of his social ostracism, attributing
it partially to Aileen's deficiencies and partially to his own attitude
of Promethean defiance, which had never yet brooked defeat.

"And I will defeat them now," he said, solemnly, to Berenice one day
over a luncheon-table at the Plaza when the room was nearly empty. His
gray eyes were a study in colossal enigmatic spirit. "The governor
hasn't signed my fifty-year franchise bill" (this was before the
closing events at Springfield), "but he will sign it. Then I have one
more fight ahead of me. I'm going to combine all the traffic lines out
there under one general system. I am the logical person to provide it.
Later on, if public ownership ever arrives, the city can buy it."

"And then--" asked Berenice sweetly, flattered by his confidences.

"Oh, I don't know. I suppose I'll live abroad. You don't seem to be
very much interested in me. I'll finish my picture collection--"

"But supposing you should lose?"

"I don't contemplate losing," he remarked, coolly. "Whatever happens,
I'll have enough to live on. I'm a little tired of contest."

He smiled, but Berenice saw that the thought of defeat was a gray one.
With victory was his heart, and only there. Owing to the national
publicity being given to Cowperwood's affairs at this time the effect
upon Berenice of these conversations with him was considerable. At the
same time another and somewhat sinister influence was working in his
favor. By slow degrees she and her mother were coming to learn that
the ultra-conservatives of society were no longer willing to accept
them. Berenice had become at last too individual a figure to be
overlooked. At an important luncheon given by the Harris Haggertys,
some five months after the Beales Chadsey affair, she had been pointed
out to Mrs. Haggerty by a visiting guest from Cincinnati as some one
with whom rumor was concerning itself. Mrs. Haggerty wrote to friends
in Louisville for information, and received it. Shortly after, at the
coming-out party of a certain Geraldine Borga, Berenice, who had been
her sister's schoolmate, was curiously omitted. She took sharp note of
that. Subsequently the Haggertys failed to include her, as they had
always done before, in their generous summer invitations. This was true
also of the Lanman Zeiglers and the Lucas Demmigs. No direct affront
was offered; she was simply