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Dreiser, Theodore, 1871-1945

"The Financier, a novel"

Stener is just a pawn. He moves
him around where he pleases."
Owen's eyes gleamed avariciously, opposingly. Cowperwood ought to be
punished, sold out, driven out of the street-railway business in which
Owen was anxious to rise.
"Now you know," observed Butler, thickly and solemnly, "I always thought
that young felly was clever, but I hardly thought he was as clever as
all that. So that's his game. You're pretty shrewd yourself, aren't you?
Well, we can fix that, if we think well of it. But there's more than
that to all this. You don't want to forget the Republican party. Our
success goes with the success of that, you know"--and he paused and
looked at his son. "If Cowperwood should fail and that money couldn't be
put back--" He broke off abstractedly. "The thing that's troublin' me
is this matter of Stener and the city treasury. If somethin' ain't done
about that, it may go hard with the party this fall, and with some of
our contracts. You don't want to forget that an election is comin'
along in November. I'm wonderin' if I ought to call in that one hundred
thousand dollars. It's goin' to take considerable money to meet my loans
in the mornin'.


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