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The Financier, a novel by Theodore Dreiser
page 81 of 652 (12%)
books, but life, pictures, trees, physical contact--these, in spite of
his shrewd and already gripping financial calculations, held him. To
live richly, joyously, fully--his whole nature craved that.

And Mrs. Cowperwood, in spite of the difference in their years, appeared
to be a fit mate for him at this time. She was once awakened, and for
the time being, clinging, responsive, dreamy. His mood and hers was for
a baby, and in a little while that happy expectation was whispered to
him by her. She had half fancied that her previous barrenness was due to
herself, and was rather surprised and delighted at the proof that it
was not so. It opened new possibilities--a seemingly glorious future of
which she was not afraid. He liked it, the idea of self-duplication. It
was almost acquisitive, this thought. For days and weeks and months and
years, at least the first four or five, he took a keen satisfaction in
coming home evenings, strolling about the yard, driving with his wife,
having friends in to dinner, talking over with her in an explanatory
way the things he intended to do. She did not understand his financial
abstrusities, and he did not trouble to make them clear.

But love, her pretty body, her lips, her quiet manner--the lure of
all these combined, and his two children, when they came--two in four
years--held him. He would dandle Frank, Jr., who was the first to
arrive, on his knee, looking at his chubby feet, his kindling eyes, his
almost formless yet bud-like mouth, and wonder at the process by which
children came into the world. There was so much to think of in this
connection--the spermatozoic beginning, the strange period of gestation
in women, the danger of disease and delivery. He had gone through a
real period of strain when Frank, Jr., was born, for Mrs. Cowperwood
was frightened. He feared for the beauty of her body--troubled over the
danger of losing her; and he actually endured his first worry when he
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