Virginia did not in the least resemble her sister , but our eldest daughter was strikingly like her dead aunt . We called her Dorothy , and Charles was devoted to her . Dolly , as we called her , was always ` Uncle Charley 's girl . ' `` When Dolly was twelve years old Charles went to New Orleans on business , and while there took yellow fever and died . He was buried there , and Dolly half broke her childish heart over his death . `` One day , five years later , when Dolly was seventeen , I was writing letters in my library . That very morning my wife and Dolly had gone to New York en route for Europe . Dolly was going to school in Paris for a year . Business prevented my accompanying them even as far as New York , but Gilbert Chester , my wife 's brother , was going with them . They were to sail on the Aragon the next morning . `` I had written steadily for about an hour . At last , growing tired , I threw down my pen and , leaning back in my chair , was on the point of lighting a cigar when an unaccountable impulse made me turn round . I dropped my cigar and sprang to my feet in amazement . There was only one door in the room and I had all along been facing it . I could have sworn nobody had entered , yet there , standing between me and the bookcase , was a man -- and that man was my brother Charles ! `` There was no mistaking him ; I saw him as plainly as I see you . He was a tall , rather stout man , with curly hair and a fair , close-clipped beard . He wore the same light-grey suit which he had worn when bidding us good-bye on the morning of his departure for New Orleans . He had no hat on , but wore spectacles , and was standing in his old favourite attitude , with his hands behind him . `` I want you to understand that at this precise moment , although I was surprised beyond measure , I was not in the least frightened , because I did not for a moment suppose that what I saw was -- well , a ghost or apparition of any sort .
The thought XXXXX flashed across my bewildered brain was simply that there had been some absurd mistake somewhere , and that my brother had never died at all , but was here , alive and well .
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