wonderful Frank should be compelled to come
to this--to cry. She stroked his head, tenderly, while wild, deadly,
unreasoning opposition to life and chance and untoward opposition surged
in her brain. Her father--damn him! Her family--pooh! What did she
care? Her Frank--her Frank. How little all else mattered where he was
concerned. Never, never, never would she desert him--never--come what
might. And now she clung to him in silence while she fought in her
brain an awful battle with life and law and fate and circumstance.
Law--nonsense! People--they were brutes, devils, enemies, hounds! She
was delighted, eager, crazy to make a sacrifice of herself. She would go
anywhere for or with her Frank now. She would do anything for him.
Her family was nothing--life nothing, nothing, nothing. She would do
anything he wished, nothing more, nothing less; anything she could do to
save him, to make his life happier, but nothing for any one else.

Chapter LVI

The days passed. Once the understanding with Bonhag was reached,
Cowperwood's wife, mother and sister were allowed to appear on
occasions. His wife and the children were now settled in the little
home for which he was paying, and his financial obligations to her were
satisfied by Wingate, who paid her one hundred and twenty five dollars
a month for him. He realized that he owed her more, but he was sailing
rather close to the wind financially, these days. The final collapse of
his old interests had come in March, when he had been legally declared a
bankrupt, and all his properties forfeited to satisfy the claims against
him. The city's claim of five hundred thousand dollars would have eaten
up more than could have been realized at the time, had not a pro rata
payment of thirty cents on the dollar been declared. Even then the city
never received its due, for by some hocus-pocus it was declared to have
forfeited its rights. Its claims had not been made at the proper time in
the proper way. This left larger portions of real money for the others.

Fortunately by now Cowperwood had begun to see that by a little
experimenting his business relations with Wingate were likely to
prove profitable. The broker had made it clear that he intended to be
perfectly straight with him. He had employed Cowperwood's two brothers,
at very moderate salaries--one to take care of the books and look after
the office, and the other to act on 'change with him, for their seats in
that organizati