A Trip to Louisville

The most serious difficulty confronting Cowperwood from now on was
really not so much political as financial. In building up and
financing his Chicago street-railway enterprises he had, in those days
when Addison was president of the Lake City National, used that bank as
his chief source of supply. Afterward, when Addison had been forced to
retire from the Lake City to assume charge of the Chicago Trust
Company, Cowperwood had succeeded in having the latter designated as a
central reserve and in inducing a number of rural banks to keep their
special deposits in its vaults. However, since the war on him and his
interests had begun to strengthen through the efforts of Hand and
Arneel--men most influential in the control of the other
central-reserve banks of Chicago, and in close touch with the money
barons of New York--there were signs not wanting that some of the
country banks depositing with the Chicago Trust Company had been
induced to withdraw because of pressure from outside inimical forces,
and that more were to follow. It was some time before Cowperwood fully
realized to what an extent this financial opposition might be directed
against himself. In its very beginning it necessitated speedy
hurryings to New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Baltimore,
Boston--even London at times--on the chance that there would be loose
and ready cash in someone's possession. It was on one of these
peregrinations that he encountered a curious personality which led to
various complications in his life, sentimental and otherwise, which he
had not hitherto contemplated.

In various sections of the country Cowperwood had met many men of
wealth, some grave, some gay, with whom he did business, and among
these in Louisville, Kentucky, he encountered a certain Col. Nathaniel
Gillis, very wealthy, a horseman, inventor, roue, from whom he
occasionally extracted loans. The Colonel was an interesting figure in
Kentucky society; and, taking a great liking to Cowperwood, he found
pleasure, during the brief periods in which they were together, in
piloting him about. On one occasion in Louisville he observed:
"To-night, Frank, with your permission, I am going to introduce you to
one of the most interesting women I know. She isn't good, but she's
entertaining. She has had a troubled history. She is the ex-wife of
two of my best friends, both dead, and the ex-mistress of another. I
like her because I knew her father