"Yes."
"And Marion wants you to?"
"Yes."
"It is strange. But if I were you I wouldn't stay where I had no right to stay," went on St. John insinuatingly.
"But I have a right here."
"Indeed!"
"Yes. The late Colonel Ruthven adopted me, and I am his son by law."
"Bah! That will count for nothing if this Confederate surgeon can prove you belong to him."
"Well, he'll have to prove it first."
"Of course you won't get out of this nest until you are pushed out," blustered St. John. "It's too much of a soft thing for you. You ought to be made to earn your own living."