She obeyed him then like a child. He remained standing.
"Tell me about your cousin," he said; "are you going to marry him?"
She hung an instant on her answer. Would that save Clarence? But in that moment she could not have spoken anything but the truth to save her soul.
"No, Mr. Lincoln," she said; "I was--but I did not love him. I--I think that was one reason why he was so reckless."
Mr. Lincoln smiled.
"The officer who happened to see Colonel Colfax captured is now in Washington. When your name was given to me, I sent for him. Perhaps he is in the anteroom now. I should like to tell you, first of all, that this officer defended your cousin and asked me to pardon him."
"He defended him! He asked you to pardon him! Who is he?" she exclaimed.
Again Mr. Lincoln smiled. He strode to the bell-cord, and spoke a few words to the usher who answered his ring.
The usher went out. Then the door opened, and a young officer, spare, erect, came quickly into the room, and bowed respectfully to the President. But Mr. Lincoln"s eyes were not on him. They were on the girl. He saw her head lifted, timidly. He saw her lips part and the color come flooding into her face. But she did not rise.
The President sighed But the light in her eyes was reflected in his own.
It has been truly said that Abraham Lincoln knew the human heart.
The officer still stood facing the President, the girl staring at his profile. The door closed behind him. "Major Brice," said Mr. Lincoln, "when you asked me to pardon Colonel Colfax, I believe that you told me he was inside his own skirmish lines when he was captured."
"Yes, sir, he was."
Suddenly Stephen turned, as if impelled by the President"s gaze, and so his eyes met Virginia"s. He forgot time and place,--for the while even this man whom he revered above all men. He saw her hand tighten on the arm of her chair. He took a step toward her, and stopped. Mr. Lincoln was speaking again.
"He put in a plea, a lawyer"s plea, wholly unworthy of him, Miss Virginia. He asked me to let your cousin off on a technicality. What do you think of that?"
"Oh!" said Virginia. Just the exclamation escaped her--nothing more. The crimson that had betrayed her deepened on her cheeks. Slowly the eyes she had yielded to Stephen came back again and rested on the President.
And now her wonder was that an ugly man could be so beautiful.
"I wish it understood, Mr. Lawyer," the President continued, "that I am not letting off Colonel Colfax on a technicality. I am sparing his life," he said slowly, "because the time for which we have been waiting and longing for four years is now at hand--the time to be merciful. Let us all thank G.o.d for it."
Virginia had risen now. She crossed the room, her head lifted, her heart lifted, to where this man of sorrows stood smiling down at her.
"Mr. Lincoln," she faltered, "I did not know you when I came here. I should have known you, for I had heard him--I had heard Major Brice praise you. Oh," she cried, "how I wish that every man and woman and child in the South might come here and see you as I have seen you to-day. I think--I think that some of their bitterness might be taken away."
Abraham Lincoln laid his hands upon the girl. And Stephen, watching, knew that he was looking upon a benediction.
"Virginia," said Mr. Lincoln, "I have not suffered by the South, I have suffered with the South. Your sorrow has been my sorrow, and your pain has been my pain. What you have lost, I have lost. And what you have gained," he added sublimely, "I have gained."
He led her gently to the window. The clouds were flying before the wind, and a patch of blue sky shone above the Potomac. With his long arm he pointed across the river to the southeast, and as if by a miracle a shaft of sunlight fell on the white houses of Alexandria.
"In the first days of the war," he said, "a flag flew there in sight of the place where George Washington lived and died. I used to watch that flag, and thank G.o.d that Washington had not lived to see it. And sometimes, sometimes I wondered if G.o.d had allowed it to be put in irony just there." His voice seemed to catch. "That was wrong," he continued.
"I should have known that this was our punishment--that the sight of it was my punishment. Before we could become the great nation He has destined us to be, our sins must be wiped out in blood. You loved that flag, Virginia. You love it still.
"I say in all sincerity, may you always love it. May the day come when this Nation, North and South, may look back upon it with reverence.
Thousands upon thousands of brave Americans have died under it for what they believed was right. But may the day come again when you will love that flag you see there now--Washington"s flag--better still."
He stopped, and the tears were wet upon Virginia"s lashes. She could not have spoken then.
Mr. Lincoln went over to his desk and sat down before it. Then he began to write, slouched forward, one knee resting on the floor, his lips moving at the same time. When he got up again he seemed taller than ever.
"There!" he said, "I guess that will fix it. I"ll have that sent to Sherman. I have already spoken to him about the matter."
They did not thank him. It was beyond them both. He turned to Stephen with that quizzical look on his face he had so often seen him wear.
"Steve," he said, "I"ll tell you a story. The other night Harlan was here making a speech to a crowd out of the window, and my boy Tad was sitting behind him.
""What shall we do with the Rebels?" said Harlan to the crowd.
""Hang "em!" cried the people. ""No," says Tad, "hang on to "em."
"And the boy was right. That is what we intend to do,--hang on to "em.
And, Steve," said Mr. Lincoln, putting his hand again on Virginia"s shoulder, "if you have the sense I think you have, you"ll hang on, too."
For an instant he stood smiling at their blushes,--he to whom the power was given to set apart his cares and his troubles and partake of the happiness of others. For of such was his happiness.
Then the President drew out his watch. "Bless me!" he said, "I am ten minutes behind my appointment at the Department. Miss Virginia, you may care to thank the Major for the little service he has done you. You can do so undisturbed here. Make yourselves at home."
As he opened the door he paused and looked back at them. The smile pa.s.sed from his face, and an ineffable expression of longing--longing and tenderness--came upon it.
Then he was gone.
For a s.p.a.ce, while his spell was upon them, they did not stir. Then Stephen sought her eyes that had been so long denied him. They were not denied him now. It was Virginia who first found her voice, and she called him by his name.
"Oh, Stephen," she said, "how sad he looked!"
He was close to her, at her side. And he answered her in the earnest tone which she knew so well.
"Virginia, if I could have had what I most wished for in the world, I should have asked that you should know Abraham Lincoln."
Then she dropped her eyes, and her breath came quickly.
"I--I might have known," she answered, "I might have known what he was.
I had heard you talk of him. I had seen him in you, and I did not know.
Do you remember that day when we were in the summer-house together at Glencoe, long ago? When you had come back from seeing him?"
"As yesterday," he said.
"You were changed then," she said bravely. "I saw it. Now I understand.
It was because you had seen Mr. Lincoln."
"When I saw him," said Stephen, reverently, "I knew how little and narrow I was."
Then, overcome by the incense of her presence, he drew her to him until her heart beat against his own. She did not resist, but lifted her face to him, and he kissed her.
"You love me, Virginia!" he cried.