"Hush! you mustn't talk so!"
"I can't help it. I hated that man when we met on the bridge—and—and I hate him still!"
"Oh, Jack!"
"It's true, Marion. I don't see why he wanted to come here. I was happy enough, with you and mother."
"He hasn't taken you away yet, Jack. Mother will make him prove his claim first, never fear. She feels as badly almost as do you."
"To me the whole story sounds unreasonable, Marion. If there is a big fortune in the background, that man may only be scheming to get it."
"But, if that is true, why doesn't he ignore you and keep the money for himself?"
"I don't know—excepting it may be that he wants me in order to make his claim stronger, or something like that. I don't know much about law."
"Neither do I. But if it comes to the worst, mother will get a lawyer and make that man prove everything he says."
The two talked the matter over for a while, and gradually Jack grew calmer. But look at it from every possible light, he could not make himself believe that Dr. Mackey was his father.