d the authority, would be to
agree now in the name of the University, and thank you. For form's
sake, I must submit the matter to the trustees of the University, but I
have no doubt as to the outcome. I anticipate nothing but grateful
approbation. Let me thank you again."

They shook hands warmly, and the solid collegian bustled forth.
Cowperwood sank quietly in his chair. He pressed his fingers together,
and for a moment or two permitted himself to dream. Then he called a
stenographer and began a bit of dictation. He did not care to think
even to himself how universally advantageous all this might yet prove
to be.

The result was that in the course of a few weeks the proffer was
formally accepted by the trustees of the University, and a report of
the matter, with Cowperwood's formal consent, was given out for
publication. The fortuitous combination of circumstances already
described gave the matter a unique news value. Giant reflectors and
refractors had been given and were in use in other parts of the world,
but none so large or so important as this. The gift was sufficient to
set Cowperwood forth in the light of a public benefactor and patron of
science. Not only in Chicago, but in London, Paris, and New York,
wherever, indeed, in the great capitals scientific and intellectual men
were gathered, this significant gift of an apparently fabulously rich
American became the subject of excited discussion. Banking men, among
others, took sharp note of the donor, and when Cowperwood's emissaries
came around later with a suggestion that the fifty-year franchises
about to be voted him for elevated roads should be made a basis of bond
and mortgage loans, they were courteously received. A man who could
give three-hundred-thousand-dollar telescopes in the hour of his
greatest difficulties must be in a rather satisfactory financial
condition. He must have great wealth in reserve. After some
preliminaries, during which Cowperwood paid a flying visit to
Threadneedle Street in London, and to Wall Street in New York, an
arrangement was made with an English-American banking company by which
the majority of the bonds for his proposed roads were taken over by
them for sale in Europe and elsewhere, and he was given ample means
wherewith to proceed. Instantly the stocks of his surface lines
bounded in price, and those who had been scheming to bring about
Cowperwood's downfall gnashed impotent teeth. Even Haeckelheimer & Co.