"But you admired him?"
"Yes," said Stephen, gravely.
"You believe with him that this government cannot exist half slave and half free. Then a day will come, Mr. Brice, when you and I shall be foreigners one to the other."
"You have forgotten," he said eagerly, "you have forgotten the rest of the quotation. 'I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but cease to be divided.' It will become all one thing or all the other."
Virginia laughed. "That seemed to me very equivocal," said she. "Your rail-sputter is well named."
"Will you read the rest of that speech?" he asked
"Judge Whipple is very clever. He has made a convert of you," she answered.
"The Judge has had nothing to do with it," cried Stephen. "He is not given to discussion with me, and until I went to Springfield had never mentioned Lincoln's name to me."
Glancing at her, he surprised a sparkle of amusement in her eyes. Then she laughed openly.
"Why do you suppose that you were sent to Springfield?" she asked.