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.