As for
loving him, I told him plainly I didn't think I ever could, though there
was no knowing what changes time might work in my feelings. I gave him
my hand, nevertheless, and told him if he took me it must be with the
consequences."
Mr. Napoleon Bowles announced visitors, and this put an end to the
conversation. The reader must know that this was not a voluntary
yielding on the part of Mattie to the wishes of her mother. She only
adopted this course as part of a plan by which she hoped to gain time,
during which Tite might return, and thus afford her the means of
averting a dilemma into which her mother was forcing her.
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.
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