Mrs. Lincoln:  He will be here directly, I think.

Mrs. Blow:  You ’re looking wonderfully well, with all the hard work that you have to do.  I’ve really had to drop some of mine.  And with expenses going up, it’s all very lowering, don’t you think?  Goliath and I have had to reduce several of our subscriptions.  But, of course, we all have to deny ourselves something.  Ah, good-afternoon, dear Mr. President.

LINCOLN comes in.  THE LADIES rise and shake hands with him.

Lincoln:  Good-afternoon, ladies.

Mrs. Otherly:  Good-afternoon, Mr. President.

They all sit.

Mrs. Blow:  And is there any startling news, Mr. President?

Lincoln:  Madam, every morning when I wake up, and say to myself, a hundred, or two hundred, or a thousand of my countrymen will be killed to-day, I find it startling.

Mrs. Blow:  Oh, yes, of course, to be sure.  But I mean, is there any good news.

Lincoln:  Yes.  There is news of a victory.  They lost twenty-seven hundred men—­we lost eight hundred.

Mrs. Blow:  How splendid!

Lincoln:  Thirty-five hundred.

Mrs. Blow:  Oh, but you mustn’t talk like that, Mr. President.  There were only eight hundred that mattered.

Lincoln:  The world is larger than your heart, madam.

Mrs. Blow:  Now the dear President is becoming whimsical, Mrs. Lincoln.

SUSAN brings in tea-tray, and hands tea round. LINCOLN takes none. 
SUSAN goes.

Mrs. Otherly:  Mr. President.

Lincoln:  Yes, ma’am.

Mrs. Otherly:  I don’t like to impose upon your hospitality.  I know how difficult everything is for you.  But one has to take one’s opportunities.  May I ask you a question?

Lincoln:  Certainly, ma’am.

Mrs. Otherly:  Isn’t it possible for you to stop this war?  In the name of a suffering country, I ask you that.

Mrs. Blow:  I’m sure such a question would never have entered my head.

Lincoln:  It is a perfectly right question.  Ma’am, I have but one thought always—­how can this thing be stopped?  But we must ensure the integrity of the Union.  In two years war has become an hourly bitterness to me.  I believe I suffer no less than any man.  But it must be endured.  The cause was a right one two years ago.  It is unchanged.

Mrs. Otherly:  I know you are noble and generous.  But I believe that war must be wrong under any circumstances, for any cause.

Mrs. Blow:  I’m afraid the President would have but little encouragement if he listened often to this kind of talk.