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There was an air of improvement about the parlor, an evidence, indeed,
that the Chapmans had renounced their Dogtown habits, and were bent on
getting up in the world. New carpets, new mirrors, new furniture, and
window-curtains such as had not been seen in Nyack before, had been got
from New York. You must make your style of living, Mrs. Chapman said,
keep pace with the progress of the family. And it would not do to let
those new, rich, and stylish people who were coming up from New York get
ahead of you in the way of elegance.
Mrs. Chapman no longer condescended to prepare the sausage meat and
pumpkin pies; in a word, to do the work of her own kitchen. She could
afford, she said, to keep two "helps," a cook and a chambermaid, to take
it easy and put on the lady, and to give evening parties that quite
outdid in the way of nice little suppers anything their neighbors could
give. There was, however, a number of people in Nyack who shook their
heads at the pretensions of the Chapmans; said they were putting on too
many airs, and made no response to Mrs.


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