But with Cowperwood acting privately for Stener it would be another thing.
The interesting thing about this proposition as finally presented by Stener for Strobik to Cowperwood, was that it raised, without appearing to do so, the whole question of Cowperwood's attitude toward the city administration.

Although he was dealing privately for Edward Butler as an agent, and with this same plan in mind, and although he had never met either Mollenhauer or Simpson, he nevertheless felt that in so far as the manipulation of the city loan was concerned he was acting for them.
On the other hand, in this matter of the private street-railway purchase which Stener now brought to him, he realized from the very beginning, by Stener's attitude, that there was something untoward in it, that Stener felt he was doing something which he ought not to do.
"Cowperwood," he said to him the first morning he ever broached this matter--it was in Stener's office, at the old city hall at Sixth and Chestnut, and Stener, in view of his oncoming prosperity, was feeling very good indeed--"isn't there some street-railway property around town here that a man could buy in on and get control of if he had sufficient money ?" Cowperwood knew that there were such properties.

His very alert mind had long since sensed the general opportunities here.

The omnibuses were slowly disappearing.

The best routes were already preempted.
Still, there were other streets, and the city was growing.