He came into the house and took the proffered chair in the sitting room. They spoke of the weather, of the tide, and of the clam harvest. The farm crops back of Big Wreck Cove did not interest Cap'n Ira. "Well," said the elder finally, clearing his throat, "I've come up here on an errand you can possibly guess, Cap'n Ira and Sister Ball." "Maybe we can and maybe we can't," observed the captain with a countenance quite as wooden as the elder himself displayed. "I come on behalf of that young woman who was here to see you the other day." "It's my opinion you'd done better to have gone to the insane asylum folks about her," rejoined Cap'n Ira. "Now, Ira!" said Prudence softly. "Seeing it as you do, Cap'n Ira," the elder remarked quite equably, "I conclude that you might think that. But you formed your judgment in the heat of--well, not anger, of course--but without sufficient reflection." "Humph!" grunted Cap'n Ira noncommittally. "I have talked with that young woman on two occasions," said the elder. "With what young woman?" interrupted Cap'n Ira. "With the girl staying at the Widow Pauling's. The girl who claims to be your niece." "You'd better talk with the other young woman," said Cap'n Ira sternly. "Ida May! Just you come in here and sit down. You are as much interested as we be, I guess. _This_ is Ida May Bostwick, Elder Minnett," he added, as Sheila entered. "Yes, yes. I have had the pleasure," said the elder, bowing gravely without offering to shake hands. He turned abruptly to Prudence. "You are quite convinced in your own mind, Sister Ball, that the young woman at the Pauling's is not your niece?" "Why, Elder Minnett," returned Prudence, "how _can_ she be? Ida May is Sarah Honey's only child, and Sarah was only distantly related to me. There never was another girl in the family--not like that one that came here the other day, for sure!" And the old woman shook her head emphatically. "That girl you got down there at the port, Elder, is crazy--crazy as a loon," put in Cap'n Ira harshly. "I am not so sure of that," the clergyman said shortly. "I swan! Beg your pardon, Elder. No offense. But you don't mean to say that she seems sane and sensible to you?" "Sane--yes! As for being sensible, that is another thing," confessed Elder Minnett. "Huh! What do you mean by that?" asked Cap'n Ira curiously. "She has told her story in full to me, and told it twice alike," said the grim-visaged minister, looking at Sheila as he answered the query. "An insane person is not so likely to do that, I believe. But she is not what I would call a sensible young woman. Not at all." "I should say not!" gasped Prudence. "But I have heard her, and I have reflected on what she has said. I do not see, if she is an impostor, how she could have made up that story." "Then she _must_ be loony," muttered Cap'n Ira.