Yes, had these other considerations not been involved, she would have run away!  Although she chanced to have no money just at this time, she would have left the Ball homestead and Wreckers’ Head and the town itself and walked so far away that nobody who knew her would ever see her again.  She had thought of doing this even as far back as the time when she was so lonely and miserable in Boston.  Now, she would willingly have become a tramp for the purpose of getting out of the affliction which enmeshed her.

She could not, nevertheless, yield to this temptation.  If she ran away from the Balls and Big Wreck Cove, she would tacitly admit the truth of all Ida May Bostwick’s claims, and possibly involve Tunis in the wreckage.  Therefore she held to her determination of keeping her place here until she was actually driven forth.

As a last resort, having now worked out the detail of that plan in her mind, she believed she could save Tunis from much calumny if it became positively necessary for her to depart under this cloud and abandon her place to the real Ida May.  The latter must, however, come with positive proof of her identity—­evidence sufficient to convince Cap’n Ira and Prudence—­before Sheila Macklin would release her grasp upon what she had obtained by trickery and deceit.

Not for a moment did the girl try to excuse to herself what she had done.  In spite of the Balls’ need of her, and in spite of Tunis’ love, Sheila did not try to deceive herself with any sophistry about the end justifying the deed.  Such thinking could not satisfy her now.

Sheila’s eyes were opened.  She beheld before her both the wide and the narrow way.  If she took the pleasanter path, it was with a full knowledge of what she did.  Yet would it be the pleasanter path?  She doubted this.  If she continued to fight for a place which was not hers by right, she must walk for all time in a slippery way.  This claim of the real Ida May might be perennial; the girl might return again and again to the attack.  For years—­as long as the Balls lived and Sheila remained with them—­she must be ever on the alert to defend her position with them.

And after the good old people died—­what then?  Their property here on the Head and their money would no more belong to Sheila Macklin than it did now.  She shrank in horror from the thought of swindling the real Ida May out of anything which might legally be hers when the Balls were gone.  Of course, Cap’n Ira and Prudence could will their property to whom they pleased.  Still, Ida May was Prudence’s niece!

As the day dragged on, Ida May did not appear, but the old folks talked about her continually, until Sheila thought she must cry aloud to them to stop.

“The poor thing must be half-witted, of course,” Mrs. Ball said ruminatively.  “Can’t be otherwise.  But she must have known something about Sarah Honey and her folks.”

“Seems likely,” agreed Cap’n Ira.