orce matter settled, and then we'll begin.
Meanwhile, if we have to come here, we'd better live rather quietly.
Don't you think so?"

It was now between five and six, that richest portion of a summer day.
It had been very warm, but was now cooling, the shade of the western
building-line shadowing the roadway, a moted, wine-like air filling the
street. As far as the eye could see were carriages, the one great
social diversion of Chicago, because there was otherwise so little
opportunity for many to show that they had means. The social forces
were not as yet clear or harmonious. Jingling harnesses of nickel,
silver, and even plated gold were the sign manual of social hope, if
not of achievement. Here sped homeward from the city--from office and
manufactory--along this one exceptional southern highway, the Via Appia
of the South Side, all the urgent aspirants to notable fortunes. Men
of wealth who had met only casually in trade here nodded to each other.
Smart daughters, society-bred sons, handsome wives came down-town in
traps, Victorias, carriages, and vehicles of the latest design to drive
home their trade-weary fathers or brothers, relatives or friends. The
air was gay with a social hope, a promise of youth and affection, and
that fine flush of material life that recreates itself in delight.
Lithe, handsome, well-bred animals, singly and in jingling pairs, paced
each other down the long, wide, grass-lined street, its fine homes
agleam with a rich, complaisant materiality.

"Oh!" exclaimed Aileen, all at once, seeing the vigorous, forceful men,
the handsome matrons, and young women and boys, the nodding and the
bowing, feeling a touch of the romance and wonder of it all. "I should
like to live in Chicago. I believe it's nicer than Philadelphia."

Cowperwood, who had fallen so low there, despite his immense capacity,
set his teeth in two even rows. His handsome mustache seemed at this
moment to have an especially defiant curl. The pair he was driving was
physically perfect, lean and nervous, with spoiled, petted faces. He
could not endure poor horse-flesh. He drove as only a horse-lover can,
his body bolt upright, his own energy and temperament animating his
animals. Aileen sat beside him, very proud, consciously erect.

"Isn't she beautiful?" some of the women observed, as they passed,
going north. "What a stunning young woman!" thought or said the men.

"Did you see her?" asked a young brother of his s