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point of view of a man of Frank Cowperwood's temperament. She supplied something he had
not previously known or consciously craved. Vitality and vivacity. No other woman or girl whom
he had ever known had possessed so much innate force as she. Her red-gold hair--not so red
as decidedly golden with a suggestion of red in it--looped itself in heavy folds about her
forehead and sagged at the base of her neck. She had a beautiful nose, not sensitive, but
straight-cut with small nostril openings, and eyes that were big and yet noticeably sensuous.
They were, to him, a pleasing shade of blue-gray-blue, and her toilet, due to her temperament,
of course, suggested almost undue luxury, the bangles, anklets, ear-rings, and breast-plates of
the odalisque, and yet, of course, they were not there. She confessed to him years afterward
that she would have loved to have stained her nails and painted the palms of her hands with
madder-red. Healthy and vigorous, she was chronically interested in men--what they would think
of her--and how she compared with other women.
The fact that she could ride in a carriage, live in a fine home on Girard Avenue, visit such homes
as those of the Cowperwoods and others, was of great weight; and yet, even at this age, she
realized that life was more than these things. Many did not have them and lived.
But these facts of wealth and advantage gripped her; and when she sat at the piano and played
or rode in her carriage or walked or stood before her mirror, she was conscious of her figure,
her charms, what they meant to men, how women envied her. Sometimes she looked at poor,
hollow-chested or homely-faced girls and felt sorry for them; at other times she flared into
inexplicable opposition to some handsome girl or woman who dared to brazen her socially or
physically. There were such girls of the better families who, in Chestnut Street, in the expensive
shops, or on the drive, on horseback or in carriages, tossed their heads and indicated as well as
human motions can that they were better-bred and knew it. When this happened each stared
defiantly at the other. She wanted ever so much to get up in the world, and yet namby-pamby
men of better social station than herself did not attract her at all. She wanted a man. Now and
then there was one "something like," but not entirely, who appealed to her, but most of them
were politicians or legislators, acquaintances of her father, and socially nothing at all--and so
they wearied and disappointed her. Her father did not know the truly elite. But Mr.
Cowperwood--he seemed so refined, so forceful, and so reserved. She often looked at Mrs.
Cowperwood and thought how fortunate she was.
Chapter XIV
The development of Cowperwood as Cowperwood & Co. following his arresting bond venture,
finally brought him into relationship with one man who was to play an important part in his life,
morally, financially, and in other ways. This was George W. Stener, the new city treasurer-elect,
who, to begin with, was a puppet in the hands of other men, but who, also in spite of this fact,
became a personage of considerable importance, for the simple reason that he was weak.
Stener had been engaged in the real estate and insurance business in a small way before he
was made city treasurer. He was one of those men, of whom there are so many thousands in
every large community, with no breadth of vision, no real subtlety, no craft, no great skill in
anything. You would never hear a new idea emanating from Stener. He never had one in his
life. On the other hand, he was not a bad fellow. He had a stodgy, dusty, commonplace look to
him which was more a matter of mind than of body. His eye was of vague gray-blue; his hair a
dusty light-brown and thin. His mouth--there was nothing impressive there. He was quite tall,
nearly six feet, with moderately broad shoulders, but his figure was anything but shapely. He
seemed to stoop a little, his stomach was the least bit protuberant, and he talked
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