"Of course, if she continues to come up here and
bother you, you can have her arrested."
"Oh!" gasped Sheila.
"Now, gal," said Cap'n Ira firmly, "don't you let your tender heart
deceive you. That crazy critter ain't worth worrying about. She
shan't be hurt. But I won't have her coming round here frightening
you and Prudence. No, sir!"
"Quite right," said Tunis, agreeing.
"Oh, Tunis!" murmured the girl.
"But she will make talk. No doubt she will make talk," said Prudence
in a worried tone. "We ought to stop her, somehow, from telling such
things about our Ida May."
"Does she want money?" asked Cap'n Ira gruffly. "She talked as
though she did."
"I think to offer her money would be the very worst possible way of
shutting her up," said Tunis. "She wants to come here and live and
be accepted as your niece."
"I never did!" gasped Prudence.
"She says nothing else will suit her. She seems to think she can
prove what she had claimed. I think the best thing to do is to let
her try it."
Sheila could not eat. She merely stared from one to the other of the
three and listened to the discussion. In no way could she see a
shadow of escape from ultimate disaster; yet she saw that Tunis was
determined to fight it out on this line, to deny the stranger's
claim and hold to what had already been gained for the girl in
possession!
"Well," Prudence said, with a sigh, "I can see plainly it is going
to stir up a puddle of muddy water.
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