"
Another thing that made Cowperwood pause and consider at this time was
a letter from Aileen, detailing a conversation which had taken place at
the Butler dinner table one evening when Butler, the elder, was not
at home. She related how her brother Owen in effect had stated that
they--the politicians--her father, Mollenhauer, and Simpson, were going
to "get him yet" (meaning Cowperwood), for some criminal financial
manipulation of something--she could not explain what--a check
or something. Aileen was frantic with worry. Could they mean the
penitentiary, she asked in her letter? Her dear lover! Her beloved
Frank! Could anything like this really happen to him?
His brow clouded, and he set his teeth with rage when he read her
letter. He would have to do something about this--see Mollenhauer or
Simpson, or both, and make some offer to the city. He could not promise
them money for the present--only notes--but they might take them. Surely
they could not be intending to make a scapegoat of him over such a
trivial and uncertain matter as this check transaction! When there was
the five hundred thousand advanced by Stener, to say nothing of all
the past shady transactions of former city treasurers! How rotten! How
political, but how real and dangerous.
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