"On my honour I am not! See here!" Jim seized the child's chill hand in his warm clasp, and drew her into the brilliantly-lighted shop. "Will you please let us see one of the dolls in the window?" he asked of the young woman who came forward to serve him. "It is the one in the yellow dress we want. The one marked half-a-crown."
In a minute the much-coveted doll was laid on the counter, and Jim turned to his companion.
"Is that the one you would like?"
The little girl lifted her eyes to his smiling countenance, her face alternately paling and flushing with excitement.
"Oh, sir!" she gasped. "Oh, sir! Do you really mean it?"
"Mean it? Of course I do! I'm going to give you a Christmas present because I have a little niece about your age, and you remind me of her, and I know if she was here she would want you to have this doll!"
"Oh!"
"I will put the doll in paper," said the young woman behind the counter.
"Perhaps you would rather take her as she is?" asked Jim. "Or shall the lady wrap her up for you?"
"She might feel the cold!" the child answered, looking at the doll with longing eyes.