It would also be to his
advantage to assume this virtue, for if the case were decided against
Hanz he would gain nothing. The creditors would in that case get all the
property, whereas, if he confessed his partnership in, and exposed the
plot, and defeated the creditors, some benefit might result from it--at
some time. The son might still be alive, Chapman said to himself, and if
he should form a connection with the family at some future day, (and
there was no knowing what might happen,) why it was better to protect
Hanz and the property now. He well knew that Mattie had fixed her
affection on the young gentleman, and if he should ever return, nothing
her mother could say hereafter would prevent their marriage.
CHAPTER XXXII.
HARVEST SUNDAY.
October was come again, the poetry of summer had almost departed, and it
was a quiet Sunday morning in the country. The bell on the little old
church by the hillside, at Nyack, was calling the plodding Dutch
settlers to morning service. The hard, hollow sounds of the old bell
echoed harshly over the hills, and yet there was something in its
familiar sounds, and the quiet pastoral scenes it was associated with,
that always moved our feelings, and prompted us to give them a pleasant
resting place in our love.
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