was very fond of Aileen, so therein lay a reason for letting her remain.  Besides, any move to force her out would have entailed an explanation to her mother, which was not deemed advisable.  Owen himself was interested in Caroline Mollenhauer, whom he hoped some day to marry—­as much for her prospective wealth as for any other reason, though he was quite fond of her.  In the January following Butler’s death, which occurred in August, Norah was married very quietly, and the following spring Callum embarked on a similar venture.

In the meanwhile, with Butler’s death, the control of the political situation had shifted considerably.  A certain Tom Collins, formerly one of Butler’s henchmen, but latterly a power in the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Wards, where he had numerous saloons and control of other forms of vice, appeared as a claimant for political recognition.  Mollenhauer and Simpson had to consult him, as he could make very uncertain the disposition of some hundred and fifteen thousand votes, a large number of which were fraudulent, but which fact did not modify their deadly character on occasion.  Butler’s sons disappeared as possible political factors, and were compelled to confine themselves to the street-railway and contracting business.  The pardon of Cowperwood and Stener, which Butler would have opposed, because by keeping Stener in he kept Cowperwood in, became a much easier matter.  The scandal of the treasury defalcation was gradually dying down; the newspapers had ceased to refer to it in any way.  Through Steger and Wingate, a large petition signed by all important financiers and brokers had been sent to the Governor pointing out that Cowperwood’s trial and conviction had been most unfair, and asking that he be pardoned.  There was no need of any such effort, so far as Stener was concerned; whenever the time seemed ripe the politicians were quite ready to say to the Governor that he ought to let him go.  It was only because Butler had opposed Cowperwood’s release that they had hesitated.  It was really not possible to let out the one and ignore the other; and this petition, coupled with Butler’s death, cleared the way very nicely.

Nevertheless, nothing was done until the March following Butler’s death, when both Stener and Cowperwood had been incarcerated thirteen months—­a length of time which seemed quite sufficient to appease the anger of the public at large.  In this period Stener had undergone a considerable change physically and mentally.  In spite of the fact that a number of the minor aldermen, who had profited in various ways by his largess, called to see him occasionally, and that he had been given, as it were, almost the liberty of the place, and that his family had not been allowed to suffer, nevertheless he realized that his political and social days were over.  Somebody might now occasionally send him a basket of fruit and assure him that he would not be compelled to suffer much longer; but when he did get out, he knew that