There is some evidence that Mary was displeased with these and other lines in the little drama and presently rang down the curtain.  Some of the spectators were informed by her that Abe Lincoln was crude and awkward and without a word to please a lady of her breeding.  But she had achieved the credit, with certain people, of having rejected a young man for whom great honors were thought to be in store.

Late in November Mr. Lincoln went out on the circuit with the distinguished John T. Stuart who had taken him into partnership.  Bim’s letter to him bears an endorsement on its envelope as follows: 

* * * * *

“This letter was forwarded from Vandalia the week I went out on the circuit and remained unopened in our office until my return six weeks later.—­A.  Lincoln.”

* * * * *

The day of his return he went to Sarah and Samson with the letter.

“I’ll get a good horse and start for Chicago to-morrow morning,” said Samson.  “They have had a double blow.  Did you read that Harry had been killed?”

“Harry killed!” Mr. Lincoln exclaimed.  “You don’t mean to tell me that Harry has been killed?”

“The Chicago Democrat says so but we don’t believe it,” said Samson.  “Here’s the article copied into The Sangamon Journal.  Read it and then I’ll tell you why I don’t think it’s so.”

Abe Lincoln read the article.

“You see it was dated in Tampa, November the fifth,” said Samson.  “Before we had read that article we had received a letter from Harry dated November the seventh.  In the letter he says he is all right and I calculate that he ought to know as much about it as any one.”

“Thank God!  Then it’s a mistake,” said Lincoln.  “We can’t afford to lose Harry.  I feel rather poor with Jack Kelso gone.  It will comfort me to do what I can for his wife and daughter.  I’ll give you every dollar I can spare to take to them.”

A moment of sorrowful silence followed.

“I’ll never forget the kindly soul of Jack or his wit or his sayings, many of which are in my notebook,” said Lincoln as he sat looking sadly into the fire.

They talked much of the great but humble man who had so loved honor and beauty and whose life had ended in the unholy turmoil of the new city.

“The country is in great trouble,” was a remark of Abe Lincoln inspired by the reflections of the hour.  “We tried to allay it in the special session of July.  Our efforts have done no good.  The ail is too deep seated.  We must first minister to a mind diseased and pluck from the heart a rooted sorrow.  You were right about it, Samson.  We have been dreaming.  Some one must invent a new system.  Wildcat money will do no good.  These big financial problems are beyond my knowledge.  I don’t know how to think in those terms.  Next session I propose to make a clean breast of it.  We’re all wrong but I fear that not all of us will be brave enough to say so.”