Page:Behind the scenes, or, Thirty years a slave and four years in the White House.djvu/211

Rh Chicago. When Mrs. Lincoln first suggested her plan, I strongly objected; but I had been with her so long, that she had acquired great power over me. "I cannot go "West with, you, Mrs. Lincoln," I said, when the idea was first advanced. "But you must go to Chicago with me, Elizabeth; I cannot do without you."

"You forget my business, Mrs. Lincoln. I cannot leave it. Just now I have the spring trousseau to make for Mrs. Douglas, and I have promised to have it done in less than a week." "Never mind. Mrs. Douglas can get some one else to make her trousseau. You may find it to your interest to go. I am very poor now, but if Congress makes an appropriation for my benefit, you shall be well rewarded."

"It is not the reward, but—" I commenced, by way of reply, but she stopped me: "Now don't say another word about it, if you do not wish to distress me. I have determined