ly long; hands, feet and eyebrows were large; skin
swarthy; hair coarse, black and generally unkempt. Only the amazing,
dreamful eyes, and a fineness in the texture of the skin, redeemed the
face and gave it distinction.(3) Why did precise, complacent Miss Todd
pick out so strange a man for her mate? The story that she married
him for ambition, divining what he was to be--like Jane Welsh in the
conventional story of Carlyle--argues too much of the gift of prophecy.
Whatever her motive, it is more than likely that she was what the
commercialism of to-day would call an "asset." She had certain qualities
that her husband lacked. For one, she had that intuition for the main
chance which shallow people confound with practical judgment. Her soul
inhabited the obvious; but within the horizon of the obvious she was
shrewd, courageous and stubborn. Not any danger that Mary Lincoln would
go wandering after dreams, visions, presences, such as were drifting
ever in a ghostly procession at the back of her husband's mind. There
was a danger in him that was to grow with the years, a danger that the
outer life might be swamped by the inner, that the ghosts within might
carry him away with them, away from fact--seeking-seeking. That this
never occurred may be fairly credited, or at least very plausibly
credited, to the firm-willed, the utterly matter-of-fact little person
he had married. How far he enjoyed the mode of his safe-guarding is a
fruitless speculation.

Another result that may, perhaps, be due to Mary Lincoln was the
improvement in his fortunes. However, this may have had no other source
than a distinguished lawyer whose keen eyes had been observing him
since his first appearance in politics. Stephen T. Logan "had that
old-fashioned, lawyer-like morality which was keenly intolerant of any
laxity or slovenliness of mind or character." He had, "as he deserved,
the reputation of being the best nisi prius lawyer in the state."(4)
After watching the gifted but ill-prepared young attorney during several
years, observing the power he had of simplification and convincingness
in statement, taking the measure of his scrupulous honesty--these were
ever Lincoln's strong cards as a lawyer--Logan made him the surprising
offer of a junior partnership, which was instantly accepted. That was
when his inner horizon was brightening, shortly before his marriage. A
period of great mental energy followed, about the years 1842 and 1843.
Lincoln thr