"
Charlotte's consternation was past all powers of speech. Here was her
brother, a respectable man, who had seen better days, and whose sister
had been a dressmaker in good families, harbouring in his own house a
common boy off the streets, who, no doubt, was a thief and pickpocket,
with all sorts of low ways and bad language. At the same time there was
poor Susan's little girl dwelling under the same roof; the child whose
pretty manners she was to attend to, living in constant companionship
with a vulgar and vicious boy! What she might have said upon recovering
her speech, neither she nor Oliver ever knew; for at this crisis Tony
himself appeared, carrying Dolly and his new broom in his arms, and
looking very haggard and tattered himself, his bare feet black with mud,
and his bare head in a hopeless condition of confusion, and tangle.
"We've bought a geat big boom, gan-pa," shouted Dolly, as she came
through the shop, and before she perceived the presence of a stranger;
"and Tony and Dolly made a great big crossing, and dot ever so much
money--"
She was suddenly silent as soon as her eye fell upon the stranger; but
Aunt Charlotte had heard enough.
Pages:
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67