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Aileen saw it. She fairly flung herself in front of him, seized his head with one hand, his shabby
waist with the other, and held him tight in a grip that he could not have readily released.
"Oh, honey, honey, honey!" she exclaimed, pityingly feverishly. "I love you, I adore you. They
could cut my body into bits if it would do you any good. To think that they should make you cry!
Oh, my sweet, my sweet, my darling boy!"
She pulled his still shaking body tighter, and with her free hand caressed his head. She kissed
his eyes, his hair, his cheeks. He pulled himself loose again after a moment, exclaiming, "What
the devil's got into me?" but she drew him back.
"Never mind, honey darling, don't you be ashamed to cry. Cry here on my shoulder. Cry here
with me. My baby--my honey pet!"
He quieted down after a few moments, cautioning her against Bonhag, and regaining his former
composure, which he was so ashamed to have lost.
"You're a great girl, pet," he said, with a tender and yet apologetic smile. "You're all right--all that
I need--a great help to me; but don't worry any longer about me, dear. I'm all right. It isn't as bad
as you think. How are you?"
Aileen on her part was not to be soothed so easily. His many woes, including his wretched
position here, outraged her sense of justice and decency. To think her fine, wonderful Frank
should be compelled to come to this--to cry. She stroked his head, tenderly, while wild, deadly,
unreasoning opposition to life and chance and untoward opposition surged in her brain. Her
father--damn him! Her family-- pooh! What did she care? Her Frank--her Frank. How little all
else mattered where he was concerned. Never, never, never would she desert
him--never--come what might. And now she clung to him in silence while she fought in her brain
an awful battle with life and law and fate and circumstance. Law--nonsense! People-- they were
brutes, devils, enemies, hounds! She was delighted, eager, crazy to make a sacrifice of herself.
She would go anywhere for or with her Frank now. She would do anything for him. Her family
was nothing--life nothing, nothing, nothing. She would do anything he wished, nothing more,
nothing less; anything she could do to save him, to make his life happier, but nothing for any
one else.
Chapter LVI
The days passed. Once the understanding with Bonhag was reached, Cowperwood's wife,
mother and sister were allowed to appear on occasions. His wife and the children were now
settled in the little home for which he was paying, and his financial obligations to her were
satisfied by Wingate, who paid her one hundred and twenty five dollars a month for him. He
realized that he owed her more, but he was sailing rather close to the wind financially, these
days. The final collapse of his old interests had come in March, when he had been legally
declared a bankrupt, and all his properties forfeited to satisfy the claims against him. The city's
claim of five hundred thousand dollars would have eaten up more than could have been
realized at the time, had not a pro rata payment of thirty cents on the dollar been declared. Even
then the city never received its due, for by some hocus-pocus it was declared to have forfeited
its rights. Its claims had not been made at the proper time in the proper way. This left larger
portions of real money for the others.
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