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climax. As has been said, he had had tremendous faith in his son; but he could not help seeing
that an error had been committed, as he thought, and that Frank was suffering greatly for it now.
He considered, of course, that Frank had been entitled to try to save himself as he had; but he
so regretted that his son should have put his foot into the trap of any situation which could stir
up discussion of the sort that was now being aroused. Frank was wonderfully brilliant. He need
never have taken up with the city treasurer or the politicians to have succeeded marvelously.
Local street-railways and speculative politicians were his undoing. The old man walked the floor
all of the days, realizing that his sun was setting, that with Frank's failure he failed, and that this
disgrace--these public charges-- meant his own undoing. His hair had grown very gray in but a
few weeks, his step slow, his face pallid, his eyes sunken. His rather showy side-whiskers
seemed now like flags or ornaments of a better day that was gone. His only consolation through
it all was that Frank had actually got out of his relationship with the Third National Bank without
owing it a single dollar. Still as he knew the directors of that institution could not possibly tolerate
the presence of a man whose son had helped loot the city treasury, and whose name was now
in the public prints in this connection. Besides, Cowperwood, Sr., was too old. He ought to
retire.
The crisis for him therefore came on the day when Frank was arrested on the embezzlement
charge. The old man, through Frank, who had it from Steger, knew it was coming, still had the
courage to go to the bank but it was like struggling under the weight of a heavy stone to do it.
But before going, and after a sleepless night, he wrote his resignation to Frewen Kasson, the
chairman of the board of directors, in order that he should be prepared to hand it to him, at
once. Kasson, a stocky, well-built, magnetic man of fifty, breathed an inward sigh of relief at the
sight of it.
"I know it's hard, Mr. Cowperwood," he said, sympathetically. "We--and I can speak for the other
members of the board--we feel keenly the unfortunate nature of your position. We know exactly
how it is that your son has become involved in this matter. He is not the only banker who has
been involved in the city's affairs. By no means. It is an old system. We appreciate, all of us,
keenly, the services you have rendered this institution during the past thirty-five years. If there
were any possible way in which we could help to tide you over the difficulties at this time, we
would be glad to do so, but as a banker yourself you must realize just how impossible that
would be. Everything is in a turmoil. If things were settled--if we knew how soon this would blow
over--" He paused, for he felt that he could not go on and say that he or the bank was sorry to
be forced to lose Mr. Cowperwood in this way at present. Mr. Cowperwood himself would have
to speak.
During all this Cowperwood, Sr., had been doing his best to pull himself together in order to be
able to speak at all. He had gotten out a large white linen handkerchief and blown his nose, and
had straightened himself in his chair, and laid his hands rather peacefully on his desk. Still he
was intensely wrought up.
"I can't stand this!" he suddenly exclaimed. "I wish you would leave me alone now."
Kasson, very carefully dressed and manicured, arose and walked out of the room for a few
moments. He appreciated keenly the intensity of the strain he had just witnessed. The moment
the door was closed Cowperwood put his head in his hands and shook convulsively. "I never
thought I'd come to this," he muttered. "I never thought it." Then he wiped away his salty hot
tears, and went to the window to look out and to think of what else to do from now on.
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