Susan in NC’s Reviews > The Financier > Status Update

“ Vaguely but surely he began to see looming before him, like a fleecy tinted cloud on the horizon, his future fortune. He was to be rich, very, very rich.”

“Her health was really not as good as it had been—the care of two children…having reduced her…she was a little run down nervously and suffered from fits of depression. Cowperwood had noticed this. He tried to be gentle and considerate, but he was too much of a utilitarian and practical–minded observer not to realize that he was likely to have a sickly wife on his hands later.”

“Between them they were rich; but he expected to be much richer. All he needed now was to keep cool. If he succeeded in this bond–issue matter, he could do it again and on a larger scale. There would be more issues.”

“…We can fix the governor, I think. After you get it they may talk to you personally, but that's your business." Cowperwood smiled his inscrutable smile. There were so many ins and outs to this financial life. It was an endless network of underground holes, along which all sorts of influences were moving. A little wit, a little nimbleness, a little luck–time and opportunity—these sometimes availed.”

“One day he saw Lincoln… He watched him enter his carriage, thinking "So that is the railsplitter, the country lawyer. Well, fate has picked a great man for this crisis." …It seemed to him unquestionable that fortuitously he had been permitted to look upon one of the world's really great men. War and statesmanship were not for him; but he knew how important those things were—at times.”

“This current war–spirit was strange. The people seemed to him to want to hear nothing but the sound of the drum and fife, to see nothing but troops, of which there were thousands now passing through…It was a thrilling sentiment, no doubt, great but unprofitable. It meant self–sacrifice, and he could not see that. If he went he might be shot, and what would his noble emotion amount to then?”

“Cowperwood was only twenty–five…He hoped the North would win; but…He did not care to fight. That seemed silly for the individual man to do. Others might—there were many poor, thin–minded, half–baked creatures who would put themselves up to be shot; but they were only fit to be commanded or shot down. As for him, his life was sacred to himself and his family and his personal interests.”

“ There came in this period the slow approach, and finally the declaration, of war between the North and the South, attended with so much excitement that almost all current minds were notably colored by it. It was terrific. Then came meetings, public and stirring, and riots…”

“ It would be impossible to indicate fully how subtle were the material changes which these years involved—changes so gradual that they were, like the lap of soft waters, unnoticeable. Considerable—a great deal, considering how little he had to begin with—wealth was added in the next five years.”

For days and weeks and months and years, at least the first four or five, he took a keen satisfaction in coming home evenings…driving with his wife, having friends in to dinner, talking over with her in an explanatory way the things he intended to do…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.”