CHAPTER X.
HIGHLY RESPECTABLE.
As old Oliver was stooping over his desk on the counter, and bringing his
dim eyes as close as he could to the letter he was writing, his shop-door
was darkened by the unexpected entrance of his sister Charlotte herself.
She was dressed with her usual extreme neatness, bordering upon
gentility, and she carried upon her arm a small fancy reticule, which
contained some fresh eggs, and a few russet apples, brought up expressly
from the country. Oliver welcomed her with more than ordinary pleasure,
and led her at once into his room behind. Charlotte's quick eyes detected
in an instant the traces of a child's dwelling there; and before Oliver
could utter a word, she picked up a little frock, and was holding it out
at arm's length, with an air of utter surprise and misgiving.
"Brother James!" she exclaimed, and her questioning voice, with its tone
of amazement, rang very clearly into his ears.
"It's my little Dolly's," he answered, in haste; "poor Susan's little
girl, who's gone out with her husband, young Raleigh, to India, because
he's 'listed, and left her little girl with me, her grandfather.
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