Full Text Archive

Full Text Archive
https://www.fulltextarchive.com
got out of this. She must go away for a while, give the man up, and then the law should run its
course with him. In all likelihood Cowperwood would go to the penitentiary-- if ever a man richly
deserved to go, it was he. Butler would see that no stone was left unturned. He would make it a
personal issue, if necessary. All he had to do was to let it be known in judicial circles that he
wanted it so. He could not suborn a jury, that would be criminal; but he could see that the case
was properly and forcefully presented; and if Cowperwood were convicted, Heaven help him.
The appeal of his financial friends would not save him. The judges of the lower and superior
courts knew on which side their bread was buttered. They would strain a point in favor of the
highest political opinion of the day, and he certainly could influence that. Aileen meanwhile was
contemplating the peculiar nature of her situation. In spite of their silence on the way home, she
knew that a conversation was coming with her father. It had to be. He would want her to go
somewhere. Most likely he would revive the European trip in some form--she now suspected the
invitation of Mrs. Mollenhauer as a trick; and she had to decide whether she would go. Would
she leave Cowperwood just when he was about to be tried? She was determined she would
not. She wanted to see what was going to happen to him. She would leave home first--run to
some relative, some friend, some stranger, if necessary, and ask to be taken in. She had some
money--a little. Her father had always been very liberal with her. She could take a few clothes
and disappear. They would be glad enough to send for her after she had been gone awhile. Her
mother would be frantic; Norah and Callum and Owen would be beside themselves with wonder
and worry; her father--she could see him. Maybe that would bring him to his senses. In spite of
all her emotional vagaries, she was the pride and interest of this home, and she knew it. 
It was in this direction that her mind was running when her father, a few days after the dreadful
exposure in the Sixth Street house, sent for her to come to him in his room. He had come home
from his office very early in the afternoon, hoping to find Aileen there, in order that he might
have a private interview with her, and by good luck found her in. She had had no desire to go
out into the world these last few days--she was too expectant of trouble to come. She had just
written Cowperwood asking for a rendezvous out on the Wissahickon the following afternoon, in
spite of the detectives. She must see him. Her father, she said, had done nothing; but she was
sure he would attempt to do something. She wanted to talk to Cowperwood about that. 
"I've been thinkin' about ye, Aileen, and what ought to be done in this case," began her father
without preliminaries of any kind once they were in his "office room" in the house together.
"You're on the road to ruin if any one ever was. I tremble when I think of your immortal soul. I
want to do somethin' for ye, my child, before it's too late. I've been reproachin' myself for the last
month and more, thinkin', perhaps, it was somethin' I had done, or maybe had failed to do,
aither me or your mother, that has brought ye to the place where ye are to-day. Needless to
say, it's on me conscience, me child. It's a heartbroken man you're lookin' at this day. I'll never
be able to hold me head up again. Oh, the shame--the shame! That I should have lived to see
it!"
"But father," protested Aileen, who was a little distraught at the thought of having to listen to a
long preachment which would relate to her duty to God and the Church and her family and her
mother and him. She realized that all these were important in their way; but Cowperwood and
his point of view had given her another outlook on life. They had discussed this matter of
families--parents, children, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters-- from almost every point of view.
Cowperwood's laissez-faire attitude had permeated and colored her mind completely. She saw
things through his cold, direct "I satisfy myself" attitude. He was sorry for all the little differences
of personality that sprang up between people, causing quarrels, bickerings, oppositions, and
188 / 312

---