back in the gas business. Enter, then, a few days later into the
office of Peter Laughlin & Co. Henry De Soto Sippens. He was a
very little man, about fifty years of age; he wore a high,
four-cornered, stiff felt hat, with a short brown business coat
(which in summer became seersucker) and square-toed shoes; he
looked for all the world like a country drug or book store owner,
with perhaps the air of a country doctor or lawyer superadded.
His cuffs protruded too far from his coat-sleeves, his necktie
bulged too far out of his vest, and his high hat was set a little
too far back on his forehead; otherwise he was acceptable, pleasant,
and interesting. He had short side-burns--reddish brown--which
stuck out quite defiantly, and his eyebrows were heavy.

"Mr. Sippens," said Cowperwood, blandly, "you were once in the gas
manufacturing and distributing business here in Chicago, weren't
you?"

"I think I know as much about the manufacture of gas as any one,"
replied Sippens, almost contentiously. "I worked at it for a
number of years."

"Well, now, Mr. Sippens, I was thinking that it might be interesting
to start a little gas company in one of these outlying villages
that are growing so fast and see if we couldn't make some money
out of it. I'm not a practical gas man myself, but I thought I
might interest some one who was." He looked at Sippens in a friendly,
estimating way. "I have heard of you as some one who has had
considerable experience in this field here in Chicago. If I should
get up a company of this kind, with considerable backing, do you
think you might be willing to take the management of it?"