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everything had been inventoried some time before. One of the things which old Cowperwood
wanted was his own desk which Frank had had designed for him; but as it was valued at five
hundred dollars and could not be relinquished by the sheriff except on payment of that sum, or
by auction, and as Henry Cowperwood had no such sum to spare, he had to let the desk go.
There were many things they all wanted, and Anna Adelaide had literally purloined a few though
she did not admit the fact to her parents until long afterward.
There came a day when the two houses in Girard Avenue were the scene of a sheriffs sale,
during which the general public, without let or hindrance, was permitted to tramp through the
rooms and examine the pictures, statuary, and objects of art generally, which were auctioned off
to the highest bidder. Considerable fame had attached to Cowperwood's activities in this field,
owing in the first place to the real merit of what he had brought together, and in the next place to
the enthusiastic comment of such men as Wilton Ellsworth, Fletcher Norton, Gordon
Strake--architects and art dealers whose judgment and taste were considered important in
Philadelphia. All of the lovely things by which he had set great store--small bronzes,
representative of the best period of the Italian Renaissance; bits of Venetian glass which he had
collected with great care--a full curio case; statues by Powers, Hosmer, and
Thorwaldsen--things which would be smiled at thirty years later, but which were of high value
then; all of his pictures by representative American painters from Gilbert to Eastman Johnson,
together with a few specimens of the current French and English schools, went for a song. Art
judgment in Philadelphia at this time was not exceedingly high; and some of the pictures, for
lack of appreciative understanding, were disposed of at much too low a figure. Strake, Norton,
and Ellsworth were all present and bought liberally. Senator Simpson, Mollenhauer, and Strobik
came to see what they could see. The small-fry politicians were there, en masse. But Simpson,
calm judge of good art, secured practically the best of all that was offered. To him went the curio
case of Venetian glass; one pair of tall blue-and-white Mohammedan cylindrical vases; fourteen
examples of Chinese jade, including several artists' water-dishes and a pierced window-screen
of the faintest tinge of green. To Mollenhauer went the furniture and decorations of the entry-hall
and reception-room of Henry Cowperwood's house, and to Edward Strobik two of
Cowperwood's bird's-eye maple bedroom suites for the most modest of prices. Adam Davis was
present and secured the secretaire of buhl which the elder Cowperwood prized so highly. To
Fletcher Norton went the four Greek vases--a kylix, a water-jar, and two amphorae--which he
had sold to Cowperwood and which he valued highly. Various objects of art, including a Sevres
dinner set, a Gobelin tapestry, Barye bronzes and pictures by Detaille, Fortuny, and George
Inness, went to Walter Leigh, Arthur Rivers, Joseph Zimmerman, Judge Kitchen, Harper Steger,
Terrence Relihan, Trenor Drake, Mr. and Mrs. Simeon Jones, W. C. Davison, Frewen Kasson,
Fletcher Norton, and Judge Rafalsky.
Within four days after the sale began the two houses were bare of their contents. Even the
objects in the house at 931 North Tenth Street had been withdrawn from storage where they
had been placed at the time it was deemed advisable to close this institution, and placed on
sale with the other objects in the two homes. It was at this time that the senior Cowperwoods
first learned of something which seemed to indicate a mystery which had existed in connection
with their son and his wife. No one of all the Cowperwoods was present during all this gloomy
distribution; and Aileen, reading of the disposition of all the wares, and knowing their value to
Cowperwood, to say nothing of their charm for her, was greatly depressed; yet she was not long
despondent, for she was convinced that Cowperwood would some day regain his liberty and
attain a position of even greater significance in the financial world. She could not have said why
but she was sure of it.
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