She was looking straight into his face, her eyes mournful.
"I was glad to send him away, sorely as I miss him. But then, you said, you come to me about him?"
"Yes, after he is gone--knowing all that you say--because I trust your great kindness and your chivalry. I come to ask you to call him back! Oh, Mr. Jefferson, were it any other man in the world but yourself I had not dared come here; but you know my story and his. It is your right to believe that he and I were--that is to say, we might have been--ah, sir, how can I speak?"
"You need not speak, my dear, I know."
"I shall be faithful to my husband, Mr. Jefferson."
The old man nodded.
"Captain Lewis knows that also. He would be the last to wish it otherwise. But, since it was his misfortune to set his regard upon one so fair as yourself, and since fate goes so hard for a strong man like him, then I must admit it needed strong medicine for his case. I sent him away, yes. Would you ask him back--for any cause?"
In turn she laid a small hand upon the President's arm.
"Only for himself--for that reason alone, Mr. Jefferson, and not to change your plans--for himself, because you love him. Oh, sir, even the greatest courts sometimes arrest their judgment if there is new evidence to be introduced. At the last moment justice gives a condemned man one more chance."
"What is it, Theodosia?" he said quietly. "I do not grasp all this."
"Able men say that this government cannot take advantage of the sale of Louisiana to us by Napoleon--that our Constitution prevents our taking over a foreign territory already populated to make into new States of our own----"
"Good, my learned counsel--say on!"
"Forgive my weak wit--I only try to say this as I heard it, well and plainly."
"As well as any man, my dear! Go on."
"Therefore, even if Captain Lewis does go forward, he can only fail at the last. This is what is said by the Federalists, by your enemies."
"And perhaps by certain of my own party not Federalists--by Colonel Aaron Burr, for instance!" Thomas Jefferson smiled grimly.
"Yes!" She spoke firmly and with courage.
"I cannot pause to inquire what my enemies say, my dear lady. But in what way could this effect our friend, Captain Lewis? He is under orders, on my errand."
"I saw him this very morning--I took my reputation in my hands--I followed him--I urged him, I implored him to stop!"
"Yes? And did he?"