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could have made Mrs. Butler alter, she was left $250,000 to be paid at Mrs. Butler's death.
Neither this fact nor any of the others contained in the paper were communicated by Mrs. Butler,
who retained it to be left as her will. Aileen often wondered, but never sought to know, what had
been left her. Nothing she fancied--but felt that she could not help this.
Butler's death led at once to a great change in the temper of the home. After the funeral the
family settled down to a seemingly peaceful continuance of the old life; but it was a matter of
seeming merely. The situation stood with Callum and Owen manifesting a certain degree of
contempt for Aileen, which she, understanding, reciprocated. She was very haughty. Owen had
plans of forcing her to leave after Butler's death, but he finally asked himself what was the use.
Mrs. Butler, who did not want to leave the old home, was very fond of Aileen, so therein lay a
reason for letting her remain. Besides, any move to force her out would have entailed an
explanation to her mother, which was not deemed advisable. Owen himself was interested in
Caroline Mollenhauer, whom he hoped some day to marry--as much for her prospective wealth
as for any other reason, though he was quite fond of her. In the January following Butler's
death, which occurred in August, Norah was married very quietly, and the following spring
Callum embarked on a similar venture.
In the meanwhile, with Butler's death, the control of the political situation had shifted
considerably. A certain Tom Collins, formerly one of Butler's henchmen, but latterly a power in
the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Wards, where he had numerous saloons and control of
other forms of vice, appeared as a claimant for political recognition. Mollenhauer and Simpson
had to consult him, as he could make very uncertain the disposition of some hundred and fifteen
thousand votes, a large number of which were fraudulent, but which fact did not modify their
deadly character on occasion. Butler's sons disappeared as possible political factors, and were
compelled to confine themselves to the street-railway and contracting business. The pardon of
Cowperwood and Stener, which Butler would have opposed, because by keeping Stener in he
kept Cowperwood in, became a much easier matter. The scandal of the treasury defalcation
was gradually dying down; the newspapers had ceased to refer to it in any way. Through Steger
and Wingate, a large petition signed by all important financiers and brokers had been sent to
the Governor pointing out that Cowperwood's trial and conviction had been most unfair, and
asking that he be pardoned. There was no need of any such effort, so far as Stener was
concerned; whenever the time seemed ripe the politicians were quite ready to say to the
Governor that he ought to let him go. It was only because Butler had opposed Cowperwood's
release that they had hesitated. It was really not possible to let out the one and ignore the other;
and this petition, coupled with Butler's death, cleared the way very nicely.
Nevertheless, nothing was done until the March following Butler's death, when both Stener and
Cowperwood had been incarcerated thirteen months--a length of time which seemed quite
sufficient to appease the anger of the public at large. In this period Stener had undergone a
considerable change physically and mentally. In spite of the fact that a number of the minor
aldermen, who had profited in various ways by his largess, called to see him occasionally, and
that he had been given, as it were, almost the liberty of the place, and that his family had not
been allowed to suffer, nevertheless he realized that his political and social days were over.
Somebody might now occasionally send him a basket of fruit and assure him that he would not
be compelled to suffer much longer; but when he did get out, he knew that he had nothing to
depend on save his experience as an insurance agent and real-estate dealer. That had been
precarious enough in the days when he was trying to get some small political foothold. How
would it be when he was known only as the man who had looted the treasury of five hundred
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