I began to repeat to myself what Douglas had said years before in the Senate in replying to Webster:  “There is a power in this nation greater either than the North or the South—­a growing, increasing, and swelling power that will be able to speak the law of this nation and to execute the law as spoken.  That power is the country known as the Great West.  There, sir, is the hope of this nation—­the resting place of the power that is not only to control but to save the Union.”

This prediction had now been fulfilled.  This West had produced Lincoln and Douglas.  One of them was sure to have the responsibility of executing the law as spoken.  Of this I was sure.

CHAPTER LVIII

When I got back to Chicago I found a letter from Isabel.  It read: 

“My dear friend:  It hurts me to think that you stole off in the darkness.  I can see you in imagination walking the lonely way, carrying your satchel.  Perhaps it made no difference that you did not stay until morning, but still it hurts me.  And what can I say to you now?  Are we like two people who are kept from each other by circumstances that they do not control, like friends whom a war separates?  I hardly know how to express myself.  There seems to be nothing to say; and yet there is so much for which I wish I had words; or I wish some word of mine could alter the circumstances.  I am loath to lose your friendship, your association.  We have so much in common that can be enjoyed through letters; and I do wish you to write me.  Above all you must not think that anything of depreciation or disregard has entered my heart.  If this be true, why must you change toward me?  Do I speak fantastically when I ask you to try out a marriage of the mind?  The experiences through which you and I have passed have enabled me to penetrate the reality of my wishes and so even to have had them.  I have known one kind of devotion; and I can fancy disillusionment coming over something more intensely emotional.  Can we not think that we might grow tired of each other, and that we are to-day where we would be if we should become disillusioned but without having the bitterness of such an experience?  Our poor human natures are cursed with fatigue, and with the loss of beauty and vision consequent upon daily intimacy.  Let me say to you then that I love you and shall always love you, and that I have nothing in my heart that would not console you if everything in my heart was frankly expressed to you.  If I ever should marry any one you will not lose your place in my affections.  I turn to my life which I left for you.  And you must see that if you have tragedy, so have I. As far as possible lift yourself out of the disturbing things of politics, and leave lesser personalities with the gods who are fashioning this world in the image of more enduring truths.  There is solace to me, and I hope there may be to you, in the fact that we two are in the world together and