Page:Behind the scenes, or, Thirty years a slave and four years in the White House.djvu/224

222 pecuniary embarrassment, and was only able to pay my expenses, and allow me nothing for my time."

"You surprise me. I thought she was left in good circumstances." "So many think, it appears. Mrs. Lincoln, I assure you, is now practising the closest economy. I must do something for myself, Mrs. Douglas, so I have come back to Washington to open my shop."

The next day I collected my assistants, and my business went on as usual. Orders came in more rapidly than I could fill them. One day, in the middle of the month of June, the girl who was attending the door came into the cutting-room, where I was hard at work: "Mrs. Keckley, there is a lady below, who wants to see you." "Who is she?" "I don't know. I did not learn her name."

"Is her face familiar? Does she look like a regular customer?" "No, she is a stranger. I don't think she was