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 God----

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

Don't--don't--don't say such foolish things. You need a guardian. You
kept three men in your Cabinet who used their position to try to climb
into the Presidency over your head. And you didn't kick them out.

LINCOLN

The country needed them.

MRS