CHAPTER XXX.
A TERRIBLE CALAMITY OVERTAKES THE FAMILY.
It was not to be expected that so pushing a woman as Mrs.Chapman would be turned from the object she had set her heart on by the interposition of ordinary obstacles.

She had taken good care to have the engagement pretty well trumpeted over Bowling Green; and in less than three months from the time what is described in the foregoing chapter occurred, the lady had a day fixed for the wedding ceremony, which, she declared should be on such a scale of magnificence as would astonish all New York, to say nothing of West Bowling Green.

And now she was distracting her wits, and the wits of her friends, over what she called the preliminaries extraordinary.

Weddings, the lady said, must be illuminated according to the position of the family.

And to that end an additional amount of elegant furniture was got for the house, a new carriage was ordered, and Mr.Napoleon Bowles was to appear in a new livery, with top boots.