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- Стр. 194/332
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Cowperwood
,
awaiting
the
assembling
of
the
new
city
council
one
month
after
election
,
did
not
propose
to
wait
in
peace
and
quiet
until
the
enemy
should
strike
at
him
unprepared
.
Calling
those
familiar
agents
,
his
corporation
attorneys
,
around
him
,
he
was
shortly
informed
of
the
new
elevated-road
idea
,
and
it
gave
him
a
real
shock
.
Obviously
Hand
and
Schryhart
were
now
in
deadly
earnest
.
At
once
he
dictated
a
letter
to
Mr.
Gilgan
asking
him
to
call
at
his
office
.
At
the
same
time
he
hurriedly
adjured
his
advisers
to
use
due
diligence
in
discovering
what
influences
could
be
brought
to
bear
on
the
new
mayor
,
the
honorable
Chaffee
Thayer
Sluss
,
to
cause
him
to
veto
the
ordinances
in
case
they
came
before
him
--
to
effect
in
him
,
indeed
,
a
total
change
of
heart
.
The
Hon.
Chaffee
Thayer
Sluss
,
whose
attitude
in
this
instance
was
to
prove
crucial
,
was
a
tall
,
shapely
,
somewhat
grandiloquent
person
who
took
himself
and
his
social
and
commercial
opportunities
and
doings
in
the
most
serious
and
,
as
it
were
,
elevated
light
.
You
know
,
perhaps
,
the
type
of
man
or
woman
who
,
raised
in
an
atmosphere
of
comparative
comfort
and
some
small
social
pretension
,
and
being
short
of
those
gray
convolutions
in
the
human
brain-pan
which
permit
an
individual
to
see
life
in
all
its
fortuitousness
and
uncertainty
,
proceed
because
of
an
absence
of
necessity
and
the
consequent
lack
of
human
experience
to
take
themselves
and
all
that
they
do
in
the
most
reverential
and
Providence-protected
spirit
.
The
Hon.
Chaffee
Thayer
Sluss
reasoned
that
,
because
of
the
splendid
ancestry
on
which
he
prided
himself
,
he
was
an
essentially
honest
man
.
His
father
had
amassed
a
small
fortune
in
the
wholesale
harness
business
.
The
wife
whom
at
the
age
of
twenty-eight
he
had
married
--
a
pretty
but
inconsequential
type
of
woman
--
was
the
daughter
of
a
pickle
manufacturer
,
whose
wares
were
in
some
demand
and
whose
children
had
been
considered
good
"
catches
"
in
the
neighborhood
from
which
the
Hon.
Chaffee
Sluss
emanated
.
There
had
been
a
highly
conservative
wedding
feast
,
and
a
honeymoon
trip
to
the
Garden
of
the
Gods
and
the
Grand
Canon
.
Then
the
sleek
Chaffee
,
much
in
the
grace
of
both
families
because
of
his
smug
determination
to
rise
in
the
world
,
had
returned
to
his
business
,
which
was
that
of
a
paper-broker
,
and
had
begun
with
the
greatest
care
to
amass
a
competence
on
his
own
account
.
The
Honorable
Chaffee
,
be
it
admitted
,
had
no
particular
faults
,
unless
those
of
smugness
and
a
certain
over-carefulness
as
to
his
own
prospects
and
opportunities
can
be
counted
as
such
.
But
he
had
one
weakness
,
which
,
in
view
of
his
young
wife
's
stern
and
somewhat
Puritanic
ideas
and
the
religious
propensities
of
his
father
and
father-in-law
,
was
exceedingly
disturbing
to
him
.
He
had
an
eye
for
the
beauty
of
women
in
general
,
and
particularly
for
plump
,
blonde
women
with
corn-colored
hair
.
Now
and
then
,
in
spite
of
the
fact
that
he
had
an
ideal
wife
and
two
lovely
children
,
he
would
cast
a
meditative
and
speculative
eye
after
those
alluring
forms
that
cross
the
path
of
all
men
and
that
seem
to
beckon
slyly
by
implication
if
not
by
actual
,
open
suggestion
.
However
,
it
was
not
until
several
years
after
Mr.
Sluss
had
married
,
and
when
he
might
have
been
considered
settled
in
the
ways
of
righteousness
,
that
he
actually
essayed
to
any
extent
the
role
of
a
gay
Lothario
.
An
experience
or
two
with
the
less
vigorous
and
vicious
girls
of
the
streets
,
a
tentative
love
affair
with
a
girl
in
his
office
who
was
not
new
to
the
practices
she
encouraged
,
and
he
was
fairly
launched
.
He
lent
himself
at
first
to
the
great
folly
of
pretending
to
love
truly
;
but
this
was
taken
by
one
and
another
intelligent
young
woman
with
a
grain
of
salt
.
The
entertainment
and
preferment
he
could
provide
were
accepted
as
sufficient
reward
.
One
girl
,
however
,
actually
seduced
,
had
to
be
compensated
by
five
thousand
dollars
--
and
that
after
such
terrors
and
heartaches
(
his
wife
,
her
family
,
and
his
own
looming
up
horribly
in
the
background
)
as
should
have
cured
him
forever
of
a
penchant
for
stenographers
and
employees
generally
.
Thereafter
for
a
long
time
he
confined
himself
strictly
to
such
acquaintances
as
he
could
make
through
agents
,
brokers
,
and
manufacturers
who
did
business
with
him
,
and
who
occasionally
invited
him
to
one
form
of
bacchanalian
feast
or
another
.
As
time
went
on
he
became
wiser
,
if
,
alas
,
a
little
more
eager
.
By
association
with
merchants
and
some
superior
politicians
whom
he
chanced
to
encounter
,
and
because
the
ward
in
which
he
lived
happened
to
be
a
pivotal
one
,
he
began
to
speak
publicly
on
occasion
and
to
gather
dimly
the
import
of
that
logic
which
sees
life
as
a
pagan
wild
,
and
religion
and
convention
as
the
forms
man
puts
on
or
off
to
suit
his
fancy
,
mood
,
and
whims
during
the
onward
drift
of
the
ages
.
Not
for
Chaffee
Thayer
Sluss
to
grasp
the
true
meaning
of
it
all
.
His
brain
was
not
big
enough
.
Men
led
dual
lives
,
it
was
true
;
but
say
what
you
would
,
and
in
the
face
of
his
own
erring
conduct
,
this
was
very
bad
.
On
Sunday
,
when
he
went
to
church
with
his
wife
,
he
felt
that
religion
was
essential
and
purifying
.
In
his
own
business
he
found
himself
frequently
confronted
by
various
little
flaws
of
logic
relating
to
undue
profits
,
misrepresentations
,
and
the
like
;
but
say
what
you
would
,
nevertheless
and
notwithstanding
,
God
was
God
,
morality
was
superior
,
the
church
was
important
.
It
was
wrong
to
yield
to
one
's
impulses
,
as
he
found
it
so
fascinating
to
do
.
One
should
be
better
than
his
neighbor
,
or
pretend
to
be
.
What
is
to
be
done
with
such
a
rag-bag
,
moralistic
ass
as
this
?
In
spite
of
all
his
philanderings
,
and
the
resultant
qualms
due
to
his
fear
of
being
found
out
,
he
prospered
in
business
and
rose
to
some
eminence
in
his
own
community
.
As
he
had
grown
more
lax
he
had
become
somewhat
more
genial
and
tolerant
,
more
generally
acceptable
.
He
was
a
good
Republican
,
a
follower
in
the
wake
of
Norrie
Simms
and
young
Truman
Leslie
MacDonald
.
His
father-in-law
was
both
rich
and
moderately
influential
.
Having
lent
himself
to
some
campaign
speaking
,
and
to
party
work
in
general
,
he
proved
quite
an
adept
.
Because
of
all
these
things
--
his
ability
,
such
as
it
was
,
his
pliability
,
and
his
thoroughly
respectable
savor
--
he
had
been
slated
as
candidate
for
mayor
on
the
Republican
ticket
,
which
had
subsequently
been
elected
.
Cowperwood
was
well
aware
,
from
remarks
made
in
the
previous
campaign
,
of
the
derogatory
attitude
of
Mayor
Sluss
.
Already
he
had
discussed
it
in
a
conversation
with
the
Hon.
Joel
Avery
(
ex-state
senator
)
,
who
was
in
his
employ
at
the
time
.
Avery
had
recently
been
in
all
sorts
of
corporation
work
,
and
knew
the
ins
and
outs
of
the
courts
--
lawyers
,
judges
,
politicians
--
as
he
knew
his
revised
statutes
.
He
was
a
very
little
man
--
not
more
than
five
feet
one
inch
tall
--
with
a
wide
forehead
,
saffron
hair
and
brows
,
brown
,
cat-like
eyes
and
a
mushy
underlip
that
occasionally
covered
the
upper
one
as
he
thought
.
After
years
and
years
Mr.
Avery
had
leamed
to
smile
,
but
it
was
in
a
strange
,
exotic
way
.
