The old man nodded.
“Captain Lewis knows that also. He would be the last to wish it otherwise. But, since it was his misfortune to set his regard upon one so fair as yourself, and since fate goes so hard for a strong man like him, then I must admit it needed strong medicine for his case. I sent him away, yes. Would you ask him back—for any cause?”
In turn she laid a small hand upon the President’s arm.
“Only for himself—for that reason alone, Mr. Jefferson, and not to change your plans—for himself, because you love him. Oh, sir, even the greatest courts sometimes arrest their judgment if there is new evidence to be introduced. At the last moment justice gives a condemned man one more chance.”
“What is it, Theodosia?” he said quietly. “I do not grasp all this.”
“Able men say that this government cannot take advantage of the sale of Louisiana to us by Napoleon—that our Constitution prevents our taking over a foreign territory already populated to make into new States of our own——”
“Good, my learned counsel—say on!”
“Forgive my weak wit—I only try to say this as I heard it, well and plainly.”
“As well as any man, my dear! Go on.”