She little knew, as much as she knew, how blandly he could lie and protest in these matters.

But he was fond of her just the same, and he really had not strayed to any extent.
By now also, Cowperwood had invested about one hundred thousand dollars in his gas-company speculations, and he was jubilant over his prospects; the franchises were good for twenty years.

By that time he would be nearly sixty, and he would probably have bought, combined with, or sold out to the older companies at a great profit.

The future of Chicago was all in his favor.

He decided to invest as much as thirty thousand dollars in pictures, if he could find the right ones, and to have Aileen's portrait painted while she was still so beautiful.
This matter of art was again beginning to interest him immensely.
Addison had four or five good pictures--a Rousseau, a Greuze, a Wouverman, and one Lawrence--picked up Heaven knows where.