was assured that, however the world might look upon him, Aunt
Lucretia was his supporter.

The girl in the Ball house saw the glimmer of his lamp that night
for a very few minutes. There was a day's work before him, and
Tunis Latham, like other hard-working men, must have his sleep.

Sheila kept the night watches alone. She went to bed, but the lids
of her eyes could not close. Sleep was as far from her as heaven
itself. She went over the entire happenings of the previous
afternoon and evening with care, giving to each incident its
rightful importance, judging the weight of each word said, each look
granted her. Did the Balls suspect her in the least? Had the story
Ida May Bostwick told made any real impression upon their minds?

No! She finally told herself that thus far she was secure. Ida May
must bring something besides assertion to influence the minds of the
two old people. And if she had had documentary proof in her
possession yesterday, the new claimant would have shown it.

Nobody carries about with him birth certificate or memoranda of
identification and relationship. If Ida May had been warned of what
she was to meet at the old house on Wreckers' Head, without doubt
she would have tried to equip herself in some such way for the
interview.

It might be very difficult for the girl to obtain any evidence that
would assure the Balls of her actual relationship to them. Sheila
had foreseen this possibility from the first. She was still quite
determined to hold on, to make the other girl do all the talking
and all the proving. She herself would rest upon the foundation of
her establishment in the place Ida May Bostwick claimed.

The latter certainly could not know Sheila's true history. Sheila
was as much a stranger to Ida May as she had been to the Balls when
Tunis had brought her to Wreckers' Head.

And then, suddenly, a thought seared through the girl's mind.
Something that Ida May Bostwick had said just before Tunis hurried
her out of the house!

"I believe I've seen her before. Somehow, she looks familiar."

These two sentences, spoken in Ida May's sneering way, had made
little impression on the excited Sheila at the time they were
spoken. But now they made the girl's heart beat wildly.

Suppose it were true! Suppose Ida May should really remember who
Sheila was? It was not impossible that the girl from the lace
counter of Hoskin & Marl's knew of Sheila's disgrace.

Sleep was not within her reach.