o unfairly? What sort of a man was Cowperwood,
anyhow? One night after she had written out a discreet but truthful
history of himself which he had dictated to her, and which she had sent
to the Chicago newspapers for him soon after the opening of his
brokerage office in Chicago, she went home and dreamed of what he had
told her, only altered, of course, as in dreams. She thought that
Cowperwood stood beside her in his handsome private office in La Salle
Street and asked her:

"Antoinette, what do you think of me?" Antoinette was nonplussed, but
brave. In her dream she found herself intensely interested in him.

"Oh, I don't know what to think. I'm so sorry," was her answer. Then
he laid his hand on hers, on her cheek, and she awoke. She began
thinking, what a pity, what a shame that such a man should ever have
been in prison. He was so handsome. He had been married twice.
Perhaps his first wife was very homely or very mean-spirited. She
thought of this, and the next day went to work meditatively.
Cowperwood, engrossed in his own plans, was not thinking of her at
present. He was thinking of the next moves in his interesting gas war.
And Aileen, seeing her one day, merely considered her an underling.
The woman in business was such a novelty that as yet she was declasse.
Aileen really thought nothing of Antoinette at all.

Somewhat over a year after Cowperwood had become intimate with Mrs.
Sohlberg his rather practical business relations with Antoinette Nowak
took on a more intimate color. What shall we say of this--that he had
already wearied of Mrs. Sohlberg? Not in the least. He was desperately
fond of her. Or that he despised Aileen, whom he was thus grossly
deceiving? Not at all. She was to him at times as attractive as
ever--perhaps more so for the reason that her self-imagined rights were
being thus roughly infringed upon. He was sorry for her, but inclined
to justify himself on the ground that these other relations--with
possibly the exception of Mrs. Sohlherg--were not enduring. If it had
been possible to marry Mrs. Sohlberg he might have done so, and he did
speculate at times as to whether anything would ever induce Aileen to
leave him; but this was more or less idle speculation. He rather
fancied they would live out their days together, seeing that he was
able thus easily to deceive her. But as for a girl like Antoinette
Nowak, she figured in that braided symphony of mere sex attraction
which som