Well, now, that isnt so easy, he commented at the end. You ought to know more about that than I do. Im not a financier, as you well know. And he grinned apologetically.
Its 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[71]. Even if I put in a bid, and can demonstrate that I can handle the loan, it wont 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 theres Jimmy Oliver heought 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?
Five million.
Five million! Butler sat up. Man, what are you talking about? Thats a good deal of money. Where are you going to sell all that?
I want to bid for five million, assuaged Cowperwood, softly. I only want one million but I want the prestige of putting in a bona fide bid for five million. It will do me good on the street.
Butler sank back somewhat relieved.
Five million! Prestige! You want one million. Well, now, thats different. Thats not such a bad idea. We ought to be able to get that.
He rubbed his chin some more and stared into the fire.
And Cowperwood felt confident when he left the house that evening that Butler would not fail him but would set the wheels working. Therefore, he was not surprised, and knew exactly what it meant, when a few days later he was introduced to City Treasurer Julian Bode, who promised to introduce him to State Treasurer Van Nostrand and to see that his claims to consideration were put before the people. Of course, you know, he said to Cowperwood, in the presence of Butler, for it was at the latters home that the conference took place, this banking crowd is very powerful. You know who they are. They dont want any interference in this bond issue business. I was talking to Terrence Relihan, who represents them up there meaning Harrisburg, the State capital and he says they wont stand for it at all. You may have trouble right here in Philadelphia after you get it theyre pretty powerful, you know. Are you sure just where you can place it?
Yes, Im sure, replied Cowperwood.
Well, the best thing in my judgment is not to say anything at all. Just put in your bid. Van Nostrand, with the governors approval, will make the award. We can fix the governor[72], I think. After you get it they may talk to you personally, but thats your business.
Cowperwood smiled his inscrutable smile. There were so many ins and outs[73] to this financial life. It was an endless network of underground holes, along which all sorts of influences were moving. A little wit, a little nimbleness, a little luck-time and opportunity these sometimes availed. Here he was, through his ambition to get on, and nothing else, coming into contact with the State treasurer and the governor. They were going to consider his case personally, because he demanded that it be considered nothing more. Others more influential than himself had quite as much right to a share, but they didnt take it. Nerve, ideas, aggressiveness, how these counted when one had luck!
He went away thinking how surprised Drexel & Co. and Cooke & Co. would be to see him appearing in the field as a competitor. In his home, in a little room on the second floor next his bedroom, which he had fixed up as an office with a desk, a safe, and a leather chair, he consulted his resources. There were so many things to think of. He went over again the list of people whom he had seen and whom he could count on to subscribe, and in so far as that was concerned the award of one million dollars he was safe. He figured to make two per cent. on the total transaction, or twenty thousand dollars. If he did he was going to buy a house out on Girard Avenue beyond the Butlers, or, better yet, buy a piece of ground and erect one; mortgaging house and property so to do. His father was prospering nicely. He might want to build a house next to him, and they could live side by side. His own business, aside from this deal, would yield him ten thousand dollars this year. His street-car investments, aggregating fifty thousand, were paying six per cent. His wifes property, represented by this house, some government bonds, and some real estate in West Philadelphia amounted to forty thousand more. Between them they were rich; but he expected to be much richer. All he needed now was to keep cool. If he succeeded in this bond-issue matter, he could do it again and on a larger scale. There would be more issues. He turned out the light after a while and went into his wifes boudoir, where she was sleeping. The nurse and the children were in a room beyond.
Well, Lillian, he observed, when she awoke and turned over toward him, I think I have that bond matter that I was telling you about arranged at last. I think Ill get a million of it, anyhow. Thatll mean twenty thousand. If I do well build out on Girard Avenue. Thats going to be the street. The college is making that neighborhood.
Thatll be fine, wont it, Frank! she observed, and rubbed his arm as he sat on the side of the bed.
Her remark was vaguely speculative.
Well have to show the Butlers some attention from now on. Hes been very nice to me and hes going to be useful I can see that. He asked me to bring you over some time. We must go. Be nice to his wife. He can do a lot for me if he wants to. He has two daughters, too. Well have to have them over here.
Ill have them to dinner sometime, she agreed cheerfully and helpfully, and Ill stop and take Mrs. Butler driving if shell go, or she can take me.
She had already learned that the Butlers were rather showy the younger generation that they were sensitive as to their lineage, and that money in their estimation was supposed to make up for any deficiency in any other respect. Butler himself is a very presentable man, Cowperwood had once remarked to her, but Mrs. Butler well, shes all right, but shes a little commonplace. Shes a fine woman, though, I think, good-natured and good-hearted. He cautioned her not to overlook Aileen and Norah, because the Butlers, mother and father, were very proud of them.
Mrs. Cowperwood at this time was thirty-two years old; Cowperwood twenty-seven. The birth and care of two children had made some difference in her looks. She was no longer as softly pleasing, more angular. Her face was hollow-cheeked, like so many of Rossettis and Burne-Joness women[74]. Her health was really not as good as it had been the care of two children and a late undiagnosed tendency toward gastritis having reduced her. In short she was a little run down nervously and suffered from fits of depression. Cowperwood had noticed this. He tried to be gentle and considerate, but he was too much of a utilitarian and practical-minded observer not to realize that he was likely to have a sickly wife on his hands later. Sympathy and affection were great things, but desire and charm must endure or one was compelled to be sadly conscious of their loss. So often now he saw young girls who were quite in his mood[75], and who were exceedingly robust and joyous. It was fine, advisable, practical, to adhere to the virtues as laid down in the current social lexicon, but if you had a sickly wifeAnd anyhow, was a man entitled to only one wife? Must he never look at another woman? Supposing he found someone? He pondered those things between hours of labor, and concluded that it did not make so much difference. If a man could, and not be exposed, it was all right. He had to be careful, though. Tonight, as he sat on the side of his wifes bed, he was thinking somewhat of this, for he had seen Aileen Butler again, playing and singing at her piano as he passed the parlor door. She was like a bright bird radiating health and enthusiasm a reminder of youth in general.
Its a strange world, he thought; but his thoughts were his own, and he didnt propose to tell anyone about them.
The bond issue, when it came, was a curious compromise; for, although it netted him his twenty thousand dollars and more and served to introduce him to the financial notice of Philadelphia and the State of Pennsylvania, it did not permit him to manipulate the subscriptions as he had planned. The State treasurer was seen by him at the office of a local lawyer of great repute, where he worked when in the city. He was gracious to Cowperwood, because he had to be. He explained to him just how things were regulated at Harrisburg. The big financiers were looked to for campaign funds. They were represented by henchmen in the State assembly and senate. The governor and the treasurer were foot-free; but there were other influences prestige, friendship, social power, political ambitions, etc. The big men might constitute a close corporation, which in itself was unfair; but, after all, they were the legitimate sponsors for big money loans of this kind. The State had to keep on good terms with them, especially in times like these. Seeing that Mr. Cowperwood was so well able to dispose of the million he expected to get, it would be perfectly all right to award it to him; but Van Nostrand had a counterproposition to make. Would Cowperwood, if the financial crowd now handling the matter so desired, turn over his award to them for a consideration[76] a sum equal to what he expected to make in the event the award was made to him? Certain financiers desired this. It was dangerous to oppose them. They were perfectly willing he should put in a bid for five million and get the prestige of that; to have him awarded one million and get the prestige of that was well enough also, but they desired to handle the twenty-three million dollars in an unbroken lot. It looked better. He need not be advertised as having withdrawn. They would be content to have him achieve the glory of having done what he started out to do. Just the same the example was bad. Others might wish to imitate him. If it were known in the street privately that he had been coerced, for a consideration, into giving up, others would be deterred from imitating him in the future. Besides, if he refused, they could cause him trouble. His loans might be called. Various banks might not be so friendly in the future. His constituents[77] might be warned against him in one way or another.
Cowperwood saw the point. He acquiesced. It was something to have brought so many high and mighties to their knees. So they knew of him! They were quite well aware of him! Well and good. He would take the award and twenty thousand or thereabouts[78] and withdraw. The State treasurer was delighted. It solved a ticklish proposition for him.[79]
Im glad to have seen you, he said. Im glad weve met. Ill drop in and talk with you some time when Im down this way. Well have lunch together.
The State treasurer, for some odd reason, felt that Mr. Cowperwood was a man who could make him some money. His eye was so keen; his expression was so alert, and yet so subtle. He told the governor and some other of his associates about him.
So the award was finally made; Cowperwood, after some private negotiations in which he met the officers of Drexel & Co., was paid his twenty thousand dollars and turned his share of the award over to them. New faces showed up in his office now from time to time among them that of Van Nostrand and one Terrence Relihan, a representative of some other political forces at Harrisburg. He was introduced to the governor one day at lunch. His name was mentioned in the papers, and his prestige grew rapidly.
Immediately he began working on plans with young Ellsworth for his new house. He was going to build something exceptional this time, he told Lillian. They were going to have to do some entertaining entertaining on a larger scale than ever. North Front Street was becoming too tame.
He put the house up for sale, consulted with his father and found that he also was willing to move. The sons prosperity had redounded to the credit of the father. The directors of the bank were becoming much more friendly to the old man. Next year President Kugel was going to retire. Because of his sons noted coup, as well as his long service, he was going to be made president. Frank was a large borrower from his fathers bank. By the same token[80] he was a large depositor. His connection with Edward Butler was significant. He sent his fathers bank certain accounts which it otherwise could not have secured. The city treasurer became interested in it, and the State treasurer. Cowperwood, Sr., stood to earn twenty thousand a year as president, and he owed much of it to his son. The two families were now on the best of terms. Anna, now twenty-one, and Edward and Joseph frequently spent the night at Franks house. Lillian called almost daily at his mothers. There was much interchange of family gossip, and it was thought well to build side by side. So Cowperwood, Sr., bought fifty feet of ground next to his sons thirty-five, and together they commenced the erection of two charming, commodious homes, which were to be connected by a covered passageway, or pergola, which could be inclosed with glass in winter.
The most popular local stone, a green granite was chosen; but Mr. Ellsworth promised to present it in such a way that it would be especially pleasing. Cowperwood, Sr., decided that he could afford to spent seventy-five thousand dollars he was now worth two hundred and fifty thousand; and Frank decided that he could risk fifty, seeing that he could raise money on a mortgage. He planned at the same time to remove his office farther south on Third Street and occupy a building of his own. He knew where an option was to be had on a twentyfive-foot building, which, though old, could be given a new brownstone front and made very significant. He saw in his minds eye a handsome building, fitted with an immense plate-glass window; inside his hardwood fixtures visible; and over the door, or to one side of it, set in bronze letters, Cowperwood & Co. Vaguely but surely he began to see looming before him, like a fleecy tinted cloud on the horizon, his future fortune. He was to be rich, very, very rich.
Chapter XIII
During all the time that Cowperwood had been building himself up thus steadily the great war of the rebellion had been fought almost to its close. It was now October, 1864.
The capture of Mobile and the Battle of the Wilderness[81] were fresh memories. Grant[82] was now before Petersburg, and the great general of the South, Lee[83], was making that last brilliant and hopeless display of his ability as a strategist and a soldier. There had been times as, for instance, during the long, dreary period in which the country was waiting for Vicksburg to fall, for the Army of the Potomac to prove victorious, when Pennsylvania was invaded by Lee when stocks fell and commercial conditions were very bad generally. In times like these Cowperwoods own manipulative ability was taxed to the utmost, and he had to watch every hour to see that his fortune was not destroyed by some unexpected and destructive piece of news.
His personal attitude toward the war, however, and aside from his patriotic feeling that the Union ought to be maintained, was that it was destructive and wasteful. He was by no means so wanting in patriotic emotion and sentiment but that he could feel that the Union[84], as it had now come to be, spreading its great length from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the snows of Canada to the Gulf[85], was worth while. Since his birth in 1837 he had seen the nation reach that physical growth barring Alaska which it now possesses. Not so much earlier than his youth Florida had been added to the Union by purchase from Spain; Mexico, after the unjust war of 1848, had ceded Texas and the territory to the West. The boundary disputes between England and the United States in the far Northwest had been finally adjusted. To a man with great social and financial imagination, these facts could not help but be significant; and if they did nothing more, they gave him a sense of the boundless commercial possibilities which existed potentially in so vast a realm. His was not the order of speculative financial enthusiasm which, in the type known as the promoter, sees endless possibilities for gain in every unexplored rivulet and prairie reach; but the very vastness of the country suggested possibilities which he hoped might remain undisturbed. A territory covering the length of a whole zone and between two seas, seemed to him to possess potentialities which it could not retain if the States of the South were lost.