"What does it mean, then?" he asked.
"Permit me to ask first, Are your convictions strong and clear, that it is your duty to go home and enter the war for the South?"
"That's a searching question," he said laughing. "To say yes, would be to condemn myself at once. To say no, - what would that do for me with Mrs. Randolph?"
"You are not speaking to Mrs. Randolph," I said, half under my breath.
He looked up eagerly in my face. "You do not think as she does!" he said. "You do not believe in fighting, under any circumstances?"
"Yes, I do, Mr. Marshall," I said; and I felt myself colour. "I do believe in fighting, when it is to relieve the oppressed, to deliver those who are trampled upon, or to save ourselves or others from worse than death."
"Our friends at the South can hardly be said to be in such extremity," he said, looking rather perplexed; "unless you believe all that the papers say about Yankee invaders; and I for one am not ready to do that."
"Nor I," I said; "I know them too well."
"Then who is so bitterly oppressed just now, Miss Randolph?"
"If you do not know of anybody, I would not fight, Mr.
Marshall."