And, perhaps, she did not care to have the neighbor's child
around when the supposed Ida May came to the house for the first
time.
They saw her watching from the side door--a tall, angular figure in
a black dress. Her hair was done plainly and in no arrangement to
soften the gaunt outline of her face, but there was much of it, and
Sheila longed to make a change in that grim coiffure.
The woman smiled so warmly when she saw the two approach that almost
instantly the girl forgot the grim contour of Aunt Lucretia's face.
That smile was like a flash of sunshine playing over one of those
barren, brown fields through which they had passed so quickly on
the way down from the Ball house.
"This is Ida May, Aunt Lucretia," said Tunis, as they reached the
porch.
The smiling woman stretched forth a hand to the girl. Her eyes,
peering through the spectacles, were very keen, and when their gaze
was centered upon the girl's face it seemed that Aunt Lucretia was
suddenly smitten by some thought, or by some discovery about the
visitor, which made her greeting slow.
Yet that may have been her usual manner. Tunis did not appear to
observe anything extraordinary. But Sheila thought Aunt Lucretia had
been about to greet her with a kiss, and then had thought better of
it.
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