Page:Behind the scenes, or, Thirty years a slave and four years in the White House.djvu/191

Rh "Is there no one, Mrs. Lincoln, that you desire to have with you in this terrible affliction?" "Yes, send for Elizabeth Keckley. I want her just as soon as she can be brought here." Three messengers, it appears, were successively despatched for me, but all of them mistook the number and failed to find me. Shortly after entering the room on Saturday morning, Mrs. "Welles excused herself, as she said she must go to her own family, and I was left alone with Mrs. Lincoln. She was nearly exhausted with grief, and when she became a little quiet, I asked and received permission to go into the Guests' Room, where the body of the President lay in state. "When I crossed the threshold of the room, I could not help recalling the day on which I had seen little Willie lying in his coffin where the body of his father now lay. I remembered how the President had wept over the pale beautiful face of his gifted boy, and now the President himself was