a ravening wolf. His
incarceration had not put him in the least awe.

"I'll not come up to your room," Butler said, "and ye'll not get out of
Philadelphy with her if that's what ye're plannin'. I can see to that.
Ye think ye have the upper hand of me, I see, and ye're anxious to make
something of it. Well, ye're not. It wasn't enough that ye come to me
as a beggar, cravin' the help of me, and that I took ye in and helped ye
all I could--ye had to steal my daughter from me in the bargain. If it
wasn't for the girl's mother and her sister and her brothers--dacenter
men than ever ye'll know how to be--I'd brain ye where ye stand. Takin'
a young, innocent girl and makin' an evil woman out of her, and ye a
married man! It's a God's blessin' for ye that it's me, and not one of
me sons, that's here talkin' to ye, or ye wouldn't be alive to say what
ye'd do."

The old man was grim but impotent in his rage.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Butler," replied Cowperwood, quietly. "I'm willing to
explain, but you won't let me. I'm not planning to run away with your
daughter, nor to leave Philadelphia. You ought to know me well enough to
know that I'm not contemplating anything of that kind; my interests are
too large. You and I are practical men. We ought to be able to talk
this matter over together and reach an understanding. I thought once
of coming to you and explaining this; but I was quite sure you wouldn't
listen to me. Now that you are here I would like to talk to you. If you
will come up to my room I will be glad to--otherwise not. Won't you come
up?"

Butler saw that Cowperwood had the advantage. He might as well go up.
Otherwise it was plain he would get no information.

"Very well," he said.

Cowperwood led the way quite amicably, and, having entered his private
office, closed the door behind him.

"We ought to be able to talk this matter over and reach an
understanding," he said again, when they were in the room and he had
closed the door. "I am not as bad as you think, though I know I appear
very bad." Butler stared at him in contempt. "I love your daughter, and
she loves me. I know you are asking yourself how I can do this while
I am still married; but I assure you I can, and that I do. I am not
happily married. I had expected, if this panic hadn't come along, to
arrange with my wife for a divorce and marry Aileen. My intentions are
perfectly good. The situation which you can complain of, of course, is
the one you encountere