e whole trouble will be over forever. Nor should you become
impatient at their being even very slow in becoming steady.
Again, you say, you much fear that that Elysium of which you
have dreamed so much is never to be realized. Well, if it
shall not, I dare swear it will not be the fault of her who
is now your wife. I now have no doubt that it is the peculiar
misfortune of both you and me to dream dreams of Elysium far
exceeding all that anything earthly can realize."

His prophecy was true. In March Speed wrote him that he was "far
happier than he had ever expected to be." Lincoln caught at the letter
with an eagerness which is deeply pathetic:

"It cannot be told how it now thrills me with joy to hear you
say you are far happier than you ever expected to be. I know
you too well to suppose your expectations were not, at least,
sometimes extravagant, and if the reality exceeds them all, I
say, Enough, dear Lord! I am not going beyond the truth when
I tell you that the short space it took me to read your last
letter gave me more pleasure than the total sum of all I have
enjoyed since the fatal 1st of January, 1841. Since then, it
seems to me, I should have been entirely happy, but for the
never absent idea that there is one still unhappy whom I have
contributed to make so. That still kills me. I cannot but
reproach myself for even wishing to be happy while she is
otherwise. She accompanied a large party on the railroad cars
to Jacksonville last Monday, and on her return spoke, so that
I heard of it, of having enjoyed the trip exceedingly. God be
praised for that."

Evidently Lincoln was still unreconciled to his separation from Miss
Todd. In the summer of 1842, only three or four months after the above
letter was written, a clever ruse on the part of certain of their
friends threw the two unexpectedly together; and an understanding
of some kind evidently was come to, for during the season they met
secretly at the house of one of Lincoln's friends, Mr. Simeon Francis.
It was while these meetings were going on that a burlesque encounter
occurred between Lincoln and James Shields, for which Miss Todd was
partly responsible, and which no doubt gave just the touch of comedy
necessary to relieve their tragedy and restore them to a healthier
view of their relations.

THE LINCOLN AND SHIELDS DUEL.

Among the Democratic officials t