Immediately afterward Mr.
Sluss gave out an interview in which he served warning on all aldermen and councilmen that no such ordinance as the one in question would ever be signed by him as mayor.
At half past ten on the same morning on which the interview appeared--the hour at which Mr.Sluss usually reached his office--his private telephone bell rang, and an assistant inquired if he would be willing to speak with Mr.Frank A.Cowperwood.

Mr.Sluss, somehow anticipating fresh laurels of victory, gratified by the front-page display given his announcement in the morning papers, and swelling internally with civic pride, announced, solemnly: "Yes; connect me." "Mr.Sluss," began Cowperwood, at the other end, "this is Frank A.
Cowperwood." "Yes.

What can I do for you, Mr.Cowperwood ?" "I see by the morning papers that you state that you will have nothing to do with any proposed ordinance which looks to giving me a franchise for any elevated road on the North or West Side ?" "That is quite true," replied Mr.Sluss, loftily.

"I will not." "Don't you think it is rather premature, Mr.Sluss, to denounce something which has only a rumored existence ?" (Cowperwood, smiling sweetly to himself, was quite like a cat playing with an unsuspicious mouse.) "I should like very much to talk this whole matter over with you personally before you take an irrevocable attitude.

It is just possible that after you have heard my side you may not be so completely opposed to me.