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And here it was, during the first year of the new life in this house, that Frank met a certain Mrs.
Semple, who interested him greatly. Her husband had a pretentious shoe store on Chestnut
Street, near Third, and was planning to open a second one farther out on the same street.
The occasion of the meeting was an evening call on the part of the Semples, Mr. Semple being
desirous of talking with Henry Cowperwood concerning a new transportation feature which was
then entering the world--namely, street-cars. A tentative line, incorporated by the North
Pennsylvania Railway Company, had been put into operation on a mile and a half of tracks
extending from Willow Street along Front to Germantown Road, and thence by various streets
to what was then known as the Cohocksink Depot; and it was thought that in time this mode of
locomotion might drive out the hundreds of omnibuses which now crowded and made
impassable the downtown streets. Young Cowperwood had been greatly interested from the
start. Railway transportation, as a whole, interested him, anyway, but this particular phase was
most fascinating. It was already creating widespread discussion, and he, with others, had gone
to see it. A strange but interesting new type of car, fourteen feet long, seven feet wide, and
nearly the same height, running on small iron car-wheels, was giving great satisfaction as being
quieter and easier-riding than omnibuses; and Alfred Semple was privately considering
investing in another proposed line which, if it could secure a franchise from the legislature, was
to run on Fifth and Sixth streets.
Cowperwood, Senior, saw a great future for this thing; but he did not see as yet how the capital
was to be raised for it. Frank believed that Tighe & Co. should attempt to become the selling
agents of this new stock of the Fifth and Sixth Street Company in the event it succeeded in
getting a franchise. He understood that a company was already formed, that a large amount of
stock was to be issued against the prospective franchise, and that these shares were to be sold
at five dollars, as against an ultimate par value of one hundred. He wished he had sufficient
money to take a large block of them.
Meanwhile, Lillian Semple caught and held his interest. Just what it was about her that attracted
him at this age it would be hard to say, for she was really not suited to him emotionally,
intellectually, or otherwise. He was not without experience with women or girls, and still held a
tentative relationship with Marjorie Stafford; but Lillian Semple, in spite of the fact that she was
married and that he could have legitimate interest in her, seemed not wiser and saner, but more
worth while. She was twenty-four as opposed to Frank's nineteen, but still young enough in her
thoughts and looks to appear of his own age. She was slightly taller than he--though he was
now his full height (five feet ten and one-half inches)--and, despite her height, shapely, artistic in
form and feature, and with a certain unconscious placidity of soul, which came more from lack of
understanding than from force of character. Her hair was the color of a dried English walnut, rich
and plentiful, and her complexion waxen--cream wax---with lips of faint pink, and eyes that
varied from gray to blue and from gray to brown, according to the light in which you saw them.
Her hands were thin and shapely, her nose straight, her face artistically narrow. She was not
brilliant, not active, but rather peaceful and statuesque without knowing it. Cowperwood was
carried away by her appearance. Her beauty measured up to his present sense of the artistic.
She was lovely, he thought--gracious, dignified. If he could have his choice of a wife, this was
the kind of a girl he would like to have.
As yet, Cowperwood's judgment of women was temperamental rather than intellectual.
Engrossed as he was by his desire for wealth, prestige, dominance, he was confused, if not
chastened by considerations relating to position, presentability and the like. None the less, the
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