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then he was buried. Mrs. Semple cried bitterly. The shock of death affected her greatly and left
her for a time in a depressed state. A brother of hers, David Wiggin, undertook for the time
being to run the shoe business for her. There was no will, but in the final adjustment, which
included the sale of the shoe business, there being no desire on anybody's part to contest her
right to all the property, she received over eighteen thousand dollars. She continued to reside in
the Front Street house, and was considered a charming and interesting widow.
Throughout this procedure young Cowperwood, only twenty years of age, was quietly manifest.
He called during the illness. He attended the funeral. He helped her brother, David Wiggin,
dispose of the shoe business. He called once or twice after the funeral, then stayed away for a
considerable time. In five months he reappeared, and thereafter he was a caller at stated
intervals-- periods of a week or ten days.
Again, it would be hard to say what he saw in Semple. Her prettiness, wax-like in its quality,
fascinated him; her indifference aroused perhaps his combative soul. He could not have
explained why, but he wanted her in an urgent, passionate way. He could not think of her
reasonably, and he did not talk of her much to any one. His family knew that he went to see her,
but there had grown up in the Cowperwood family a deep respect for the mental force of Frank.
He was genial, cheerful, gay at most times, without being talkative, and he was decidedly
successful. Everybody knew he was making
money now. His salary was fifty dollars a week, and he was certain soon to get more. Some lots
of his in West Philadelphia, bought three years before, had increased notably in value. His
street-car holdings, augmented by still additional lots of fifty and one hundred and one hundred
and fifty shares in new lines incorporated, were slowly rising, in spite of hard times, from the
initiative five dollars in each case to ten, fifteen, and twenty-five dollars a share--all destined to
go to par. He was liked in the financial district and he was sure that he had a successful future.
Because of his analysis of the brokerage situation he had come to the conclusion that he did not
want to be a stock gambler. Instead, he was considering the matter of engaging in bill-
brokering, a business which he had observed to be very profitable and which involved no risk as
long as one had capital. Through his work and his father's connections he had met many
people--merchants, bankers, traders. He could get their business, or a part of it, he knew.
People in Drexel & Co. and Clark & Co. were friendly to him. Jay Cooke, a rising banking
personality, was a personal friend of his.
Meanwhile he called on Mrs. Semple, and the more he called the better he liked her. There was
no exchange of brilliant ideas between them; but he had a way of being comforting and social
when he wished. He advised her about her business affairs in so intelligent a way that even her
relatives approved of it. She came to like him, because he was so considerate, quiet,
reassuring, and so ready to explain over and over until everything was quite plain to her. She
could see that he was looking on her affairs quite as if they were his own, trying to make them
safe and secure.
"You're so very kind, Frank," she said to him, one night. "I'm awfully grateful. I don't know what I
would have done if it hadn't been for you."
She looked at his handsome face, which was turned to hers, with child-like simplicity.
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