otest. "Aren't you going to try and be happy with me?
This is as much for you as for me. You will be able to pay up old
scores even better than I will."

He smiled winningly.

"Yes," she replied, reproachfully but tenderly at that, a little
sorrowfully, "a lot of good money does me. It was your love I wanted."

"But you have that," he insisted. "I've told you that over and over.
I never ceased to care for you really. You know I didn't."

"Yes, I know," she replied, even as he gathered her close in his arms.
"I know how you care." But that did not prevent her from responding to
him warmly, for back of all her fuming protest was heartache, the wish
to have his love intact, to restore that pristine affection which she
had once assumed would endure forever.

Chapter XXIII

The Power of the Press

The morning papers, in spite of the efforts of Cowperwood and his
friends to keep this transfer secret, shortly thereafter were full of
rumors of a change in "North Chicago." Frank Algernon Cowperwood,
hitherto unmentioned in connection with Chicago street-railways, was
pointed to as the probable successor to Onias C. Skinner, and Edwin L.
Kaffrath, one of the old directors, as future vice-president. The men
back of the deal were referred to as "in all likelihood Eastern
capitalists." Cowperwood, as he sat in Aileen's room examining the
various morning papers, saw that before the day was over he would be
sought out for an expression of opinion and further details. He
proposed to ask the newspaper men to wait a few days until he could
talk to the publishers of the papers themselves--win their
confidence--and then announce a general policy; it would be something
that would please the city, and the residents of the North Side in
particular. At the same time he did not care to promise anything which
he could not easily and profitably perform. He wanted fame and
reputation, but he wanted money even more; he intended to get both.

To one who had been working thus long in the minor realms of finance,
as Cowperwood considered that he had so far been doing, this sudden
upward step into the more conspicuous regions of high finance and
control was an all-inspiring thing. So long had he been stirring about
in a lesser region, paving the way by hours and hours of private
thought and conference and scheming, that now when he actually had
achieved his end he could scarcely believe for the time being that it
was true. Ch