might be paid?" Cowperwood asked,
softly, quite genially.

"That, also, I would suggest, might be left to your very sound
judgment."

The voice ceased. The receiver was hung up.

"Well, I'll be damned!" Cowperwood said, looking at the floor
reflectively. A smile spread over his face. "I'm not going to be held
up like that. I don't need to be. It isn't worth it. Not at present,
anyhow." His teeth set.

He was underestimating Mr. Truman Leslie MacDonald, principally because
he did not like him. He thought his father might return and oust him.
It was one of the most vital mistakes he ever made in his life.

Chapter XXIV

The Coming of Stephanie Platow

During this period of what might have been called financial and
commercial progress, the affairs of Aileen and Cowperwood had been to a
certain extent smoothed over. Each summer now, partly to take Aileen's
mind off herself and partly to satisfy his own desire to see the world
and collect objects of art, in which he was becoming more and more
interested, it was Cowperwood's custom to make with his wife a short
trip abroad or to foreign American lands, visiting in these two years
Russia, Scandinavia, Argentine, Chili, and Mexico. Their plan was to
leave in May or June with the outward rush of traffic, and return in
September or early October. His idea was to soothe Aileen as much as
possible, to fill her mind with pleasing anticipations as to her
eventual social triumph somewhere--in New York or London, if not
Chicago--to make her feel that in spite of his physical desertion he
was still spiritually loyal.

By now also Cowperwood was so shrewd that he had the ability to
simulate an affection and practise a gallantry which he did not feel,
or, rather, that was not backed by real passion. He was the soul of
attention; he would buy her flowers, jewels, knickknacks, and
ornaments; he would see that her comfort was looked after to the last
detail; and yet, at the very same moment, perhaps, he would be looking
cautiously about to see what life might offer in the way of illicit
entertainment. Aileen knew this, although she could not prove it to be
true. At the same time she had an affection and an admiration for the
man which gripped her in spite of herself.

You have, perhaps, pictured to yourself the mood of some general who
has perhaps suffered a great defeat; the employee who after years of
faithful service finds himself discharged. What shall li