"Oh, you needn't get me anything."

"Needn't I?" he asked, squeezing her waist and kissing her mouth again.

It was fine to be getting on this way in the world and having such a
good time.





Chapter V


The following October, having passed his eighteenth year by nearly six
months, and feeling sure that he would never want anything to do with
the grain and commission business as conducted by the Waterman Company,
Cowperwood decided to sever his relations with them and enter the employ
of Tighe & Company, bankers and brokers.

Cowperwood's meeting with Tighe & Company had come about in the ordinary
pursuance of his duties as outside man for Waterman & Company. From the
first Mr. Tighe took a keen interest in this subtle young emissary.

"How's business with you people?" he would ask, genially; or, "Find that
you're getting many I.O.U.'s these days?"

Because of the unsettled condition of the country, the over-inflation of
securities, the slavery agitation, and so forth, there were prospects