he did not meet
until middle age, he had something like intimate comradeship. But
even they did not break the prevailing solitude of his inner life. His
aloofness of soul became a fixed condition. The one intruder in that
lonely inner world was Speed. In the great collection of Lincoln's
letters none have the intimate note except the letters to Speed. And
even these are not truly intimate with the exception of a single group
inspired all by the same train of events. The deep, instinctive reserve
of Lincoln's nature was incurable. The exceptional group of letters
involve his final love-affair. Four years after his removal to
Springfield, Lincoln became engaged to Miss Mary Todd. By that time he
had got a start at the law and was no longer in grinding poverty. If not
yet prosperous, he had acquired "prospects"--the strong likelihood of
better things to come so dear to the buoyant heart of the early West.

Hospitable Springfield, some of whose best men had known him in the
Legislature, opened its doors to him. His humble origin, his poor
condition, were forgiven. In true Western fashion, he was frankly put
on trial to show what was in him. If he could "make good" no
further questions would be asked. And in every-day matters, his
companionableness rose to the occasion. Male Springfield was captivated
almost as easily as New Salem.

But all this was of the outer life. If the ferment within was constant
between 1835 and 1840, the fact is lost in his taciturnity. But there is
some evidence of a restless emotional life.

In the rebound after the woe following Ann's death, he had gone questing
after happiness--such a real thing to him, now that he had discovered
the terror of unhappiness--in a foolish half-hearted courtship of a
bouncing, sensible girl named Mary Owens, who saw that he was not really
in earnest, decided that he was deficient in those "little links that
make up a woman's happiness," and sent him about his business--rather,
on the whole, to his relief.(7) The affair with Miss Todd had a
different tone from the other. The lady was of another world socially.
The West in those days swarmed with younger sons, or the equivalents
of younger sons, seeking their fortunes, whom sisters and cousins were
frequently visiting. Mary Todd was sister-in-law to a leading citizen
of Springfield. Her origin was of Kentucky and Virginia, with definite
claims to distinction. Though a family genealogy mounts as high as the
sixth cen