seats."

"The best in the house to-night, the first row in the balcony
dress-circle, opposite the President's box. We can see everything on the
stage, in the box, and every nook and corner of the house."

"Then I'll forgive you for keeping me waiting."

They ascended the stairs, pushed through the throng standing, and at last
reached the seats.

What a crowd! The building was a mass of throbbing humanity, and, over
all, the hum of the thrilling wonder of peace and victory!

The women in magnificent costumes, officers in uniforms flashing with
gold, the show of wealth and power, the perfume of flowers and the music
of violin and flutes gave Margaret the impression of a dream, so sharp was
the contrast with her own life and people in the South.

The interior of the house was a billow of red, white, and blue. The
President's box was wrapped in two enormous silk flags with gold-fringed
edges gracefully draped and hanging in festoons.

Withers, the leader of the orchestra, was in high feather. He raised his
baton with quick, inspired movement. It was for him a personal triumph,
too. He had composed the music of a song for the occasion. It was
dedicated to the President, and the programme announced that it would be
rendered during the evening between the acts by a famous quartet, assisted
by the whole company in chorus. The National flag would be draped about
each singer, worn as the togas of ancient Greece and Rome.

It was already known by the crowd that General and Mrs. Grant had left the
city for the North and could not be present, but every eye was fixed on
the door through which the President and Mrs. Lincoln would enter. It was
the hour of his supreme triumph.

[Illustration: THE ASSASSINATION.]

What a romance his life! The thought of it thrilled the crowd as they
waited. A few years ago this tall, sad-faced man had floated down the
Sangamon River into a rough Illinois town, ragged, penniless, friendless,
alone, begging for work. Four years before he had entered Washington as
President of the United States--but he came under cover of the night with
a handful of personal friends, amid universal contempt for his ability and
the loud expressed conviction of his failure from within and without his
party. He faced a divided Nation and the most awful civil convulsion in
history. Through it all he had led the Nation in safety, growing each day
in power and fame, until to-night, amid the victorious shouts of millio