Capitalists and financiers -- Fiction; Chicago (Ill.) -- Fiction; Psychological fiction
One day she saw Aileen sweep in from her carriage, wearing warm
brown furs, smart polished boots, a street-suit of corded brown wool,
and a fur toque sharpened and emphasized by a long dark-red feather
which shot upward like a dagger or a quill pen. Antoinette hated her.
She conceived herself to be better, or as good at least. Why was life
divided so unfairly? What sort of a man was Cowperwood, anyhow? One
night after she had written out a discreet but truthful history of
himself which he had dictated to her, and which she had sent to the
Chicago newspapers for him soon after the opening of his brokerage
office in Chicago, she went home and dreamed of what he had told her,
only altered, of course, as in dreams. She thought that Cowperwood
stood beside her in his handsome private office in La Salle Street and
asked her:
“Antoinette, what do you think of me?” Antoinette was nonplussed, but
brave. In her dream she found herself intensely interested in him.
“Oh, I don’t know what to think. I’m so sorry,” was her answer. Then he
laid his hand on hers, on her cheek, and she awoke. She began thinking,
what a pity, what a shame that such a man should ever have been in
prison. He was so handsome. He had been married twice. Perhaps his
first wife was very homely or very mean-spirited. She thought of this,
and the next day went to work meditatively. Cowperwood, engrossed in
his own plans, was not thinking of her at present. He was thinking of
the next moves in his interesting gas war. And Aileen, seeing her one
day, merely considered her an underling. The woman in business was such
a novelty that as yet she was _declassé_. Aileen really thought nothing
of Antoinette at all.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account