we need. Count on me
now and ever as your true and unswerving friend."[213]

[Illustration: Anna E. Dickinson]

Another bright spot was Susan's friendship with Anna E. Dickinson,
with whom she carried on a lively correspondence, scratching oft
hurried notes to her on the backs of old envelopes or any odd scraps
of paper that came to hand. Whenever Anna was in New York, she usually
burst into the _Revolution_ office, showered Susan with kisses, and
carried on such an animated conversation about her experiences that
the whole office force was spellbound, admiring at the same time her
stylish costume and jaunty velvet cap with its white feather, very
becoming on her short black curls.

Repeatedly Susan urged Anna to stay with her in her "plain quarters"
at 44 Bond Street or in her "nice hall bedroom" at 116 East
Twenty-third Street. That Anna could have risen out of the hardships
of her girlhood to such popularity as a lecturer and to such
financial success was to Susan like a fairy tale come true. Scarcely
past twenty, Anna not only had moved vast audiences to tears, but was
sought after by the Republicans as one of their most popular campaign
speakers and had addressed Congress with President Lincoln in
attendance. Susan had been sadly disappointed that Anna had not seen
her way clear to speak a strong word for women in the Kansas campaign,
but she hoped that this vivid talented young woman would prove to be
"the evangel" who would lead women "into the kingdom of political and
civil rights." It never occurred to her that she herself might even
now be that "evangel."[214]

* * * * *

By this time Susan had been called on the carpet by some of the
officers of the American Equal Rights Association because she had used
the Association's office as a base for business connected with the
Train lecture tour and the establishment of _The Revolution_. She was
also accused of spending the funds of the Association for her own
projects and to advertise Train. Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, and
Stephen Foster were particularly suspicious of her. Her accounts were
checked and rechecked by them and found in good order. However, at the
annual meeting of the Association in May 1868, Henry Blackwell again
brought the matter up. Deeply hurt by his public accusation, she once
more carefully explained that because there had been no funds except
those which came out of her own pocket or had been raised by her