"Tell me everything you said about it?" he urged laughingly.
"I'm afraid Mrs. Lincoln might not like it!" she said demurely.
"We'll risk it. I'm going to take you in to see her in a minute. I want her to know you. Tell me, what else did you say?"
He spoke with the eager wistfulness of a boy. It was only too plain that few messages of good cheer had come to lighten the burden his responsibilities had brought.
A smile touched her eyes with tender sympathy:
"You won't be vain if I tell you exactly what I said, Mr. President?"
"After all the brickbats that have been coming my way?" he laughed. No man could laugh with more genuine hearty enjoyment. His laughter convulsed his whole being for the moment and fairly hypnotized his hearer into sympathy with his mood.
"Out with it, Miss Betty, I need it!" he urged.
"I said, Mr. President, that you were very tender and very strong——" she paused and looked straight into his deep set eyes "——and that a great man had appeared in our history."
He was still for a moment and a mist veiled the light at which she gazed. He took her hand in both his, pressed it gently and murmured: