He had annexed him as a surgeon selects a special knife or instrument for an operation, and, shrewd as old Laughlin was, he was destined to be no more than a tool in Cowperwood's strong hands, a mere hustling messenger, content to take orders from this swiftest of moving brains.

For the present Cowperwood was satisfied to do business under the firm name of Peter Laughlin & Co .-- as a matter of fact, he preferred it; for he could thus keep himself sufficiently inconspicuous to avoid undue attention, and gradually work out one or two coups by which he hoped to firmly fix himself in the financial future of Chicago.
As the most essential preliminary to the social as well as the financial establishment of himself and Aileen in Chicago, Harper Steger, Cowperwood's lawyer, was doing his best all this while to ingratiate himself in the confidence of Mrs.Cowperwood, who had no faith in lawyers any more than she had in her recalcitrant husband.
She was now a tall, severe, and rather plain woman, but still bearing the marks of the former passive charm that had once interested Cowperwood.

Notable crows'-feet had come about the corners of her nose, mouth, and eyes.

She had a remote, censorious, subdued, self-righteous, and even injured air.
The cat-like Steger, who had all the graceful contemplative air of a prowling Tom, was just the person to deal with her.

A more suavely cunning and opportunistic soul never was.