"What store did you work in?"
"Hoskin & Marl's," said the girl, still unruffled.
"To be sure. That's what Esther Coffin said she heard, I remember.
But I never got to that store. Couldn't go to all of 'em. It tired
me to death, just going around Marshall & Denham's."
This and similar incidents were building blocks in the structure
which she was raising. Nor did she consider it a structure of
deceit. The foundation only was of doubtful veracity. These people
had accepted her as somebody she was not, it was true; but she
gained nothing thereby that the real Ida May would not have had to
win for herself.
With Tunis approving and encouraging her, how could the girl spend
much time in doubt or any at all in despair? She felt that she was a
much better girl--morally as well as physically--in this environment
than she had been for many, many months. Instead of being conscience
wrung in playing the part of impostor and living under an assumed
name and identity, she felt a sense of self-congratulation.
And when in the company of the captain of the _Seamew_ she felt
almost exalted. There was a pact between them that made their tie
more than that of sister and brother. Yet, of love they never
spoke--not during those first weeks on Wreckers' Head.
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