And as a means of making the desired impression, and
also of finding relief for her injured feelings, she had brought
Napoleon Bowles into "retirement" with the family. And that faithful
domestic accommodated his pride of a Sunday by dressing in his livery
and top-boots, and walking out, to the astonishment and amusement of a
crowd of curious urchins, who were sure to gather about him.
As for Chapman, he went about the town as if nothing had happened,
renewing acquaintances, and declaring there was no honester man in the
settlement than Hanz Toodleburg; that the charges against his honesty,
and his connection with the Kidd Discovery Company, were all scandals,
got up by bad men; and that he had been deceived by them himself.
During the few days Chapman had been in Nyack, he had made himself
appear so good a friend of Hanz that the honest settlers not only began
to express sympathy for him in his misfortunes, but to enquire what they
could do to put him on his feet again. When, however, he told them it
was not their sympathy he wanted, but their money to assist him in
building a steamboat two hundred feet long, and that he had matured a
plan for a railroad, so that they might ride from Nyack to New York in
an hour, they became alarmed, put their heads together wisely, and
declared the man mad beyond cure.
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