He mused a moment, then he said as if to the fire instead of Ann: "It won't be until I know, that I promise to marry a woman."
Ann glanced at Lincoln. He seemed for the moment unconscious of her existence. She called him from his reflections by speaking his name.
"Abraham," she said as the wheel spun slowly, "I have a secret to tell you, a confession to make."
He was all attention in a minute. She dropped her hands in her lap and moved a little way from behind the wheel.
"Do you remember the camp-meeting, and Brother Cartwright saying you were a deluded sinner, and saying you were worth praying for?"
"Did he? I believe he did."
"Well, since that night, every day I have been remembering you at the throne of grace, but I have made up my mind it is only wasting time. I still don't understand how anybody can be saved and not believe in hell, and you do some things that are not right, like the day at the quilting-bee, which was not fair to John McNeil. My Bible says, 'by their fruits shall men be known,' and, Abraham, your life bears fruit, much better fruit and more of it than do some of those who call you a sinner. So I've decided it's just wasting my time and God's to pray for you any more."
In the moment of silence that followed this speech, Ann turned back to the wheel.
"Don't spin," he said; "there's something I want to say."