The great beacon lights of the street now condescended
to bow and shake hands with Topman, to take more than a glance at the
firm's name when it was brought to their notice on certain bits of paper
which the enterprising firm, for mere convenience sake, gave now and
then as "equivalents". In short, Mr. Topman was a man of such
impressive manners that he quite captivated Wall street, and to have
those solid-pocketed old gentlemen speak encouragingly of the house,
was, he considered, gaining a great financial victory. In addition to
this Topman lived in a fine house, sumptuously furnished, on the west
side of Bowling Green, had a servant in livery to open the door, and
rode in his own carriage.
Mrs. Topman was a showy, dashing woman of thirty-five, or thereabouts,
tall and slender, and somewhat graceful of figure, and might have passed
for a beauty at twenty. But there was a faded look about her now, and
she had a weakness for loud talking and overdressing. She was evidently
a woman of doubtful blood, and "no family," as society would say in
these days.
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