in disgust. "What an awful place!" was her one
comment at this most stirring of Western boom towns.

When it came to Chicago, however, and its swirling, increasing life,
Aileen was much interested. Between attending to many financial
matters Cowperwood saw to it that she was not left alone. He asked her
to shop in the local stores and tell him about them; and this she did,
driving around in an open carriage, attractively arrayed, a great brown
hat emphasizing her pink-and-white complexion and red-gold hair. On
different afternoons of their stay he took her to drive over the
principal streets. When Aileen was permitted for the first time to see
the spacious beauty and richness of Prairie Avenue, the North Shore
Drive, Michigan Avenue, and the new mansions on Ashland Boulevard, set
in their grassy spaces, the spirit, aspirations, hope, tang of the
future Chicago began to work in her blood as it had in Cowperwood's.
All of these rich homes were so very new. The great people of Chicago
were all newly rich like themselves. She forgot that as yet she was
not Cowperwood's wife; she felt herself truly to be so. The streets,
set in most instances with a pleasing creamish-brown flagging, lined
with young, newly planted trees, the lawns sown to smooth green grass,
the windows of the houses trimmed with bright awnings and hung with
intricate lace, blowing in a June breeze, the roadways a gray, gritty
macadam--all these things touched her fancy. On one drive they skirted
the lake on the North Shore, and Aileen, contemplating the chalky,
bluish-green waters, the distant sails, the gulls, and then the new
bright homes, reflected that in all certitude she would some day be the
mistress of one of these splendid mansions. How haughtily she would
carry herself; how she would dress! They would have a splendid house,
much finer, no doubt, than Frank's old one in Philadelphia, with a
great ball-room and dining-room where she could give dances and
dinners, and where Frank and she would receive as the peers of these
Chicago rich people.

"Do you suppose we will ever have a house as fine as one of these,
Frank?" she asked him, longingly.

"I'll tell you what my plan is," he said. "If you like this Michigan
Avenue section we'll buy a piece of property out here now and hold it.
Just as soon as I make the right connections here and see what I am
going to do we'll build a house--something really nice--don't worry. I
want to get this div