eturn. She little knew how much of a part Stephanie would play in
Cowperwood's life.

The Cowperwoods, having been put down at Goteborg, saw no more of the
Platows until late October. Then Aileen, being lonely, called to see
Stephanie, and occasionally thereafter Stephanie came over to the South
Side to see the Cowperwoods. She liked to roam about their house, to
dream meditatively in some nook of the rich interior, with a book for
company. She liked Cowperwood's pictures, his jades, his missals, his
ancient radiant glass. From talking with Aileen she realized that the
latter had no real love for these things, that her expressions of
interest and pleasure were pure make-believe, based on their value as
possessions. For Stephanie herself certain of the illuminated books
and bits of glass had a heavy, sensuous appeal, which only the truly
artistic can understand. They unlocked dark dream moods and pageants
for her. She responded to them, lingered over them, experienced
strange moods from them as from the orchestrated richness of music.

And in doing so she thought of Cowperwood often. Did he really like
these things, or was he just buying them to be buying them? She had
heard much of the pseudo artistic--the people who made a show of art.
She recalled Cowperwood as he walked the deck of the Centurion. She
remembered his large, comprehensive, embracing blue-gray eyes that
seemed to blaze with intelligence. He seemed to her quite obviously a
more forceful and significant man than her father, and yet she could
not have said why. He always seemed so trigly dressed, so well put
together. There was a friendly warmth about all that he said or did,
though he said or did little. She felt that his eyes were mocking, that
back in his soul there was some kind of humor over something which she
did not understand quite.

After Stephanie had been back in Chicago six months, during which time
she saw very little of Cowperwood, who was busy with his street-railway
programme, she was swept into the net of another interest which carried
her away from him and Aileen for the time being. On the West Side,
among a circle of her mother's friends, had been organized an Amateur
Dramatic League, with no less object than to elevate the stage. That
world-old problem never fails to interest the new and the
inexperienced. It all began in the home of one of the new rich of the
West Side--the Timberlakes. They, in their large house on A