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Soon he returned with the sad intelligence that:

"The Personal Liberty Bill is missing! The number of the hill, 608, is scratched out, and the bill itself is nowhere to be found."

This was Tuesday evening, and only one day and a-half remained of the session, in which to hunt up the bill and secure its passage; or if lost, to draft a new one in its stead, and get it through both houses again, before Thursday noon. As the case demanded the most prompt and efficient action, I determined to go to work myself, directly in its behalf, and lose not one moment for my work to be done by proxy.

Early Wednesday morning, I called upon Mr. Bushnell, the chairman of the Judiciary of the Senate, at the "Leland House," and told him of the condition of the bill.

He replied he was too full of business to render me any assistance in this emergency, and he feared I should find this to be the case with all the other Senators; still, he sincerely hoped I might succeed in my efforts in finding the bill and in getting it passed.

I then called at the room of Lieutenant-Governor Bross, the Speaker of the Senate, and laid the case before him, and although he expressed an interest in the subject, and a warm sympathy for me in my troubles, yet, said he:

"I can do nothing for your bill. You must go the Senators for help."

"Yes, you can, Governor Bross. You can be a little patient when it is up and not hurry it upon the table, as you sometimes seem to do with other bills in the rush of business. Now, you will favor my bill in this way, won't you?"

He smiled at my earnest persistency, and I left, with his hearty good wish that I might succeed.

Finding by this time that the Senators had gone to the State-House, I accordingly followed them to the Senate chamber, which was soon crowded with Senators and lobbyists.

The Senators were generally strangers to me, as almost all I had interviews with were House members. I therefore sought the chairman, Mr. Bushnell, and asked him to please introduce me to the member nearest him, which he kindly did.

I then in as few words as possible, told him how the Married Woman's Bill was imperilled, and then appealed directly to his manliness in its behalf.

Then came the usual demonstration of a willingness to help, if the rush of business did not render it impossible.

But instead of leaving him, as I had the speaker, Governor Bross, with good wishes merely, I exacted a promise that he would not only vote for the bill if brought forward, but defend it also, if necessary.

I then asked him to please introduce me to his next neighbor, which he did, and I labored with him in like manner, until I had secured his promise of honor that he would both vote for and defend the bill, if necessary.

Then he introduced me to the next, and so on, until I had spoken to fifteen Senators, and secured a promise from each to vote for my bill, and defend it if necessary.

From five of these I obtained an additional promise that they each would "call up the bill," hoping that among the five, one might possibly find an opportunity and remember so to do.

But now my lobbying was abruptly terminated, by a call of order from the Speaker, to commence business.

In retiring to the gallery, I was compelled to elbow my way through the crowd of lobbyists on the outside, who I saw were watching my movements on the inside among the members, with such intense curiosity, that a single glance in that direction would almost confound me, when it was accompanied with the thought:

"They are wondering if that is a sane woman lobbying in this style among the Senators, doing what no lady was ever found doing before her!"

The instantaneous response which I found myself mentally making, was:

"I will not quail before your suspicions. I am engaged in a good work, and it shall be done, in spite of this bugbear of insanity in my path; for the Personal Liberty of all the Married Women in Illinois is in imminent danger, and they know it not!"

The agitation my movements had aroused, caused, as it would seem, alarm in the breast of the thief, who had stolen my bill, lest his detection might be the result, for, when the bill was called up, with the inquiry as to where it was, it was found on hand, and produced by the clerk, without delay, of farther investigation.

Thus in the great rush of closing up the large amount of unfinished business on hand the culprit escaped detection for the present; but his crime is chronicled upon the page of the recording angel's book to be revealed in God's appointed time to his shame and confusion.

Finding the bill safe, the motion was made and carried, that it be acted upon in its proper time when the house bills would come up for action.

Hundreds of bills being on hand to dispose of before noon of the following day, the principal business of that day seemed to be to "kill these bills" as fast as possible, as the most summary way of disposing of them.

The gallery was crowded with anxious lobbyists, who, like myself, were watching with, perhaps, equal solicitude the fate of their own bills, and as this wholesale carnage seemed to thicken and deepen with every passing hour, disappointment seemed everywhere to prevail, as those whose bills were passed, were only the rare exceptions, while the murdered ones were the rule.