politely enough, found it difficult to get anything to eat, to say
nothing of drink.

While this was going on Mrs. Bigelow Chapman was busying herself getting
up an anti-tea-and-coffee-drinking society. She declared that this
coffee and tea-drinking was nothing less than an oppression, breaking
down people's health and making them poor, while the grocers who sold
the stuff were getting rich. It was evident, also, that she was carrying
her principles out on the table of the new inn. However commendable
these reforms might be in the eyes of a true reformer, they were not
exactly the thing to satisfy the wants of hungry travellers. The new inn
soon got up an excellent reputation for giving its customers nothing but
politeness and clean linen. This not being satisfactory to the
travelling public generally, the establishment had to close its doors
for want of customers. Chapman was surprised at this. He could not
understand why reformers were not better appreciated about Nyack. The
stock-holders, however, had lost all their money, and were glad to sell
out to Chapman, which they did for a trifle, and that was all he
wanted.

People began to inquire what the big building would next be turned into.
Mrs. Chapman and her dear husband, as she called him, were always
projecting something new. Indeed, she saw two fortunes in the future
where Chapman only saw one. The thought invaded her mind that there was
a fortune to be made by turning the big house into a great moral
progress boarding-school for young ladies, where "all the proprieties"
would be strictly attended to. Yes, "the proprieties" would take with
steady-minded people. She could attend to the proprieties, and dear
Chapman could look after the little money affairs. She did not want to
trouble herself with the sordid things of this world; she only wanted to