Cowperwood responded quickly, for he knew of Butler, his rise, his connections, his force. He called at the house as directed, one cold, crisp February morning. He remembered the appearance of the street afterward--broad, brick-paved sidewalks, macadamized roadway, powdered over with a light snow and set with young, leafless, scrubby trees and lamp-posts. Butler"s house was not new--he had bought and repaired it--but it was not an unsatisfactory specimen of the architecture of the time. It was fifty feet wide, four stories tall, of graystone and with four wide, white stone steps leading up to the door. The window arches, framed in white, had U-shaped keystones. There were curtains of lace and a glimpse of red plush through the windows, which gleamed warm against the cold and snow outside. A trim Irish maid came to the door and he gave her his card and was invited into the house.

"Is Mr. Butler home?"

"I"m not sure, sir. I"ll find out. He may have gone out."

In a little while he was asked to come upstairs, where he found Butler in a somewhat commercial-looking room. It had a desk, an office chair, some leather furnishings, and a bookcase, but no completeness or symmetry as either an office or a living room. There were several pictures on the wall--an impossible oil painting, for one thing, dark and gloomy; a ca.n.a.l and barge scene in pink and nile green for another; some daguerreotypes of relatives and friends which were not half bad.

Cowperwood noticed one of two girls, one with reddish-gold hair, another with what appeared to be silky brown. The beautiful silver effect of the daguerreotype had been tinted. They were pretty girls, healthy, smiling, Celtic, their heads close together, their eyes looking straight out at you. He admired them casually, and fancied they must be Butler"s daughters.

"Mr. Cowperwood?" inquired Butler, uttering the name fully with a peculiar accent on the vowels. (He was a slow-moving man, solemn and deliberate.) Cowperwood noticed that his body was hale and strong like seasoned hickory, tanned by wind and rain. The flesh of his cheeks was pulled taut and there was nothing soft or flabby about him.

"I"m that man."

"I have a little matter of stocks to talk over with you" ("matter"

almost sounded like "mather"), "and I thought you"d better come here rather than that I should come down to your office. We can be more private-like, and, besides, I"m not as young as I used to be."

He allowed a semi-twinkle to rest in his eye as he looked his visitor over.

Cowperwood smiled.

"Well, I hope I can be of service to you," he said, genially.

"I happen to be interested just at present in pickin" up certain street-railway stocks on "change. I"ll tell you about them later. Won"t you have somethin" to drink? It"s a cold morning."

"No, thanks; I never drink."

"Never? That"s a hard word when it comes to whisky. Well, no matter.

It"s a good rule. My boys don"t touch anything, and I"m glad of it. As I say, I"m interested in pickin" up a few stocks on "change; but, to tell you the truth, I"m more interested in findin" some clever young felly like yourself through whom I can work. One thing leads to another, you know, in this world." And he looked at his visitor non-committally, and yet with a genial show of interest.

"Quite so," replied Cowperwood, with a friendly gleam in return.

"Well," Butler meditated, half to himself, half to Cowperwood, "there are a number of things that a bright young man could do for me in the street if he were so minded. I have two bright boys of my own, but I don"t want them to become stock-gamblers, and I don"t know that they would or could if I wanted them to. But this isn"t a matter of stock-gambling. I"m pretty busy as it is, and, as I said awhile ago, I"m getting along. I"m not as light on my toes as I once was. But if I had the right sort of a young man--I"ve been looking into your record, by the way, never fear--he might handle a number of little things--investments and loans--which might bring us each a little somethin". Sometimes the young men around town ask advice of me in one way and another--they have a little somethin" to invest, and so--"

He paused and looked tantalizingly out of the window, knowing full well Cowperwood was greatly interested, and that this talk of political influence and connections could only whet his appet.i.te. Butler wanted him to see clearly that fidelity was the point in this case--fidelity, tact, subtlety, and concealment.

"Well, if you have been looking into my record," observed Cowperwood, with his own elusive smile, leaving the thought suspended.

Butler felt the force of the temperament and the argument. He liked the young man"s poise and balance. A number of people had spoken of Cowperwood to him. (It was now Cowperwood & Co. The company was fiction purely.) He asked him something about the street; how the market was running; what he knew about street-railways. Finally he outlined his plan of buying all he could of the stock of two given lines--the Ninth and Tenth and the Fifteenth and Sixteenth--without attracting any attention, if possible. It was to be done slowly, part on "change, part from individual holders. He did not tell him that there was a certain amount of legislative pressure he hoped to bring to bear to get him franchises for extensions in the regions beyond where the lines now ended, in order that when the time came for them to extend their facilities they would have to see him or his sons, who might be large minority stockholders in these very concerns. It was a far-sighted plan, and meant that the lines would eventually drop into his or his sons"

basket.

"I"ll be delighted to work with you, Mr. Butler, in any way that you may suggest," observed Cowperwood. "I can"t say that I have so much of a business as yet--merely prospects. But my connections are good. I am now a member of the New York and Philadelphia exchanges. Those who have dealt with me seem to like the results I get."

"I know a little something about your work already," reiterated Butler, wisely.

"Very well, then; whenever you have a commission you can call at my office, or write, or I will call here. I will give you my secret operating code, so that anything you say will be strictly confidential."

"Well, we"ll not say anything more now. In a few days I"ll have somethin" for you. When I do, you can draw on my bank for what you need, up to a certain amount." He got up and looked out into the street, and Cowperwood also arose.

"It"s a fine day now, isn"t it?"

"It surely is."

"Well, we"ll get to know each other better, I"m sure."

He held out his hand.

"I hope so."

Cowperwood went out, Butler accompanying him to the door. As he did so a young girl bounded in from the street, red-cheeked, blue-eyed, wearing a scarlet cape with the peaked hood thrown over her red-gold hair.

"Oh, daddy, I almost knocked you down."

She gave her father, and incidentally Cowperwood, a gleaming, radiant, inclusive smile. Her teeth were bright and small, and her lips bud-red.

"You"re home early. I thought you were going to stay all day?"

"I was, but I changed my mind."

She pa.s.sed on in, swinging her arms.

"Yes, well--" Butler continued, when she had gone. "Then well leave it for a day or two. Good day."

"Good day."

Cowperwood, warm with this enhancing of his financial prospects, went down the steps; but incidentally he spared a pa.s.sing thought for the gay spirit of youth that had manifested itself in this red-cheeked maiden.

What a bright, healthy, bounding girl! Her voice had the subtle, vigorous ring of fifteen or sixteen. She was all vitality. What a fine catch for some young fellow some day, and her father would make him rich, no doubt, or help to.

Chapter XII

It was to Edward Malia Butler that Cowperwood turned now, some nineteen months later when he was thinking of the influence that might bring him an award of a portion of the State issue of bonds. Butler could probably be interested to take some of them himself, or could help him place some. He had come to like Cowperwood very much and was now being carried on the latter"s books as a prospective purchaser of large blocks of stocks. And Cowperwood liked this great solid Irishman. He liked his history. He had met Mrs. Butler, a rather fat and phlegmatic Irish woman with a world of hard sense who cared nothing at all for show and who still liked to go into the kitchen and superintend the cooking. He had met Owen and Callum Butler, the boys, and Aileen and Norah, the girls.

Aileen was the one who had bounded up the steps the first day he had called at the Butler house several seasons before.

There was a cozy grate-fire burning in Butler"s improvised private office when Cowperwood called. Spring was coming on, but the evenings were cool. The older man invited Cowperwood to make himself comfortable in one of the large leather chairs before the fire and then proceeded to listen to his recital of what he hoped to accomplish.

"Well, now, that isn"t so easy," he commented at the end. "You ought to know more about that than I do. I"m not a financier, as you well know."

And he grinned apologetically.

"It"s a matter of influence," went on Cowperwood. "And favoritism.

That I know. Drexel & Company and Cooke & Company have connections at Harrisburg. They have men of their own looking after their interests.

The attorney-general and the State treasurer are hand in glove with them. Even if I put in a bid, and can demonstrate that I can handle the loan, it won"t help me to get it. Other people have done that. I have to have friends--influence. You know how it is."

"Them things," Butler said, "is easy enough if you know the right parties to approach. Now there"s Jimmy Oliver--he ought to know something about that." Jimmy Oliver was the whilom district attorney serving at this time, and incidentally free adviser to Mr. Butler in many ways. He was also, accidentally, a warm personal friend of the State treasurer.

"How much of the loan do you want?"