A Man of the People Part 27

At once--sir----

LINCOLN

And tell Edward I'm much obliged to him for staying, but he can go now----

NICOLAY

Yes, sir----

LINCOLN

See that he goes before our visitor arrives. I have asked him to say nothing about this appointment.

NICOLAY

You can trust him implicitly, sir----

[NICOLAY _exits._]

MRS. LINCOLN

But, you can't trust your wife, to-night, it seems----

LINCOLN

[_Whimsically._]

Well, you know you're a woman, Mother----

MRS. LINCOLN

[_Angrily._]

Thank G.o.d----

LINCOLN

Amen! So say I!

MRS. LINCOLN

You're _afraid_ to tell me--who this man is----?

LINCOLN

I may tell you to-morrow----

MRS. LINCOLN

When--you've-made-some-fatal-blunder----

LINCOLN

I'll make no mistake this time----

MRS. LINCOLN

Then why are you afraid of my woman's intuition----

LINCOLN

[_Smiling._]

I'm not afraid of your _intuition_, Mother----

MRS. LINCOLN

Thank you.

LINCOLN

I didn't say it!----

[_Laughs._]

--But you know you do _talk_ too much sometimes!

MRS. LINCOLN

[_Angrily._]

And I'm going to say something to you now. I thought this morning that you would treat those scoundrels with the contempt they deserve when they dared to ask you to sacrifice yourself and the cause of the Union to the ambitions of some traitor behind them.

LINCOLN

No! No! They're honest in what they say----

MRS. LINCOLN

[_Furious._]

You're too good and simple for this world! Don't you know that some schemer is behind all this----?

LINCOLN

Maybe---- It's not a crime, Mother, for a man to aspire to high office, if the bee's in his bonnet. You know I've felt it tickle me lots of times----

MRS. LINCOLN