She had read of a lady in her carriage driving right into society and forcing a surrender.
Unfortunately the fools were not so plenty as formerly, the demand for Kidd Discovery stock had greatly diminished, and the expense of keeping up appearances in the city had far exceeded Chapman's calculations.
Indeed, he had already begun to talk of the necessity of economy.

Topman was already drawing heavily on the income of the firm to keep up appearances, and the future must not be overlooked.

The lady had, therefore, to content herself with a one-horse turn-out, an establishment not very popular in Bowling Green even at that day.
Although the lady had to accept the necessity, there was no getting along without a coachman, and Mr.Napoleon Bowles was engaged to wear a livery and wait on the lady in that capacity.

Now Bowles stood about five feet four inches in his boots, was very fat and very short-legged, and very black, for he was a person of African descent and established color.

Bowles weighed at least two hundred and fifty solid, so that when he drove his mistress out for an airing of an afternoon the whole establishment made so shabby and yet so comical an appearance as to afford the whole neighborhood a subject for amusement.