The following October, having passed his eighteenth year by nearly sixmonths, and feeling sure that he would never want anything to do withthe grain and commission business as conducted by the Waterman Company,Cowperwood decided to sever his relations with them and enter theemploy of Tighe & Company, bankers and brokers. Cowperwood’s meeting with Tighe & Company had come about in theordinary pursuance of his duties as outside man for Waterman & Company.From the first...

The appearance of Frank Cowperwood at this time was, to say the least,prepossessing and satisfactory. Nature had destined him to be aboutfive feet ten inches tall. His head was large, shapely, notablycommercial in aspect, thickly covered with crisp, dark-brown hair andfixed on a pair of square shoulders and a stocky body. Already his eyeshad the look that subtle years of thought bring. They were inscrutable.You could tell nothing by his eyes. He walked with a light, confident,springy step....

It was in his thirteenth year that young Cowperwood entered into hisfirst business venture. Walking along Front Street one day, a street ofimporting and wholesale establishments, he saw an auctioneer’s flaghanging out before a wholesale grocery and from the interior came theauctioneer’s voice: “What am I bid for this exceptional lot of Javacoffee, twenty-two bags all told, which is now selling in the marketfor seven dollars and thirty-two cents a bag wholesale? What am I...