Pearl Street is now chiefly occupied
by the auction dealers, and the wholesale drygoods merchants, for
warehouses and counting-rooms.] had been transferred to the Locusts, and
gave to the room that indescribable air of comfort, which so gratefully
announces the approach of a domestic winter. Into one of these recesses
Captain Wharton now threw himself, drawing the curtain before him in
such a manner as to conceal most of his person from observation; while
his younger sister, losing her natural frankness of manner, in an air of
artificial constraint, silently took possession of the other.
Harvey Birch had been a peddler from his youth; at least so he
frequently asserted, and his skill in the occupation went far to prove
the truth of the declaration. He was a native of one of the eastern
colonies; and, from something of superior intelligence which belonged to
his father, it was thought they had known better fortune in the land of
their nativity. Harvey possessed, however, the common manners of the
country, and was in no way distinguished from men of his class, but by
his acuteness, and the mystery which enveloped his movements. Ten years
before, they had arrived together in the vale, and, purchasing the
humble dwelling at which Harper had made his unsuccessful application,
continued ever since peaceful inhabitants, but little noticed and but
little known.
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