rwards some time in the Ward Academy of Lexington. Miss Todd first
visited Springfield in 1837, but remained only a few months. In 1839
she returned to make her home with her sister, Mrs. Edwards. She had
two other sisters in the town, Mrs. William Wallace and Mrs. C.M.
Smith. The story of her life will, of course, be told in connection
with that of Mr. Lincoln in the forthcoming articles. The photograph
used for this reproduction was kindly loaned by Mrs. S.J. Withington,
Warner, New Hampshire.]

Miss Todd came from a well-known family of Lexington, Kentucky; her
father, Robert S. Todd, being one of the leading citizens of his
State. She had come to Springfield in 1839 to live with her sister,
Mrs. Edwards. She was a brilliant, witty, highly-educated girl,
ambitious and spirited, with a touch of audacity which only made
her more attractive, and she at once took a leading position in
Springfield society. There were many young unmarried men in the town,
drawn there by politics, and Mr. Edwards's handsome home was opened to
them in the hospitable Southern way. After Mary Todd became an inmate
of the Edwards house, the place was gayer than ever. She received much
attention from Douglas, Shields, Lincoln, and several others. It
was soon apparent, however, that Miss Todd preferred Lincoln. As
the intimacy between them increased, Mr. and Mrs. Edwards protested.
However honorable and able a man Lincoln might be, he was still a
"plebeian." His family were humble and poor; he was self-educated,
without address or polish, careless of forms, indifferent to society.
How could Mary Todd, brought up in a cultured home, accustomed to
the refinements of life, and with ambition for social position,
accommodate herself to so grave a nature, so dull an exterior? Miss
Todd knew her own mind, however. She loved Lincoln, and seems to have
believed from the first in his future. Some time in 1840 they became
engaged.

[Illustration: LINCOLN IN 1858.--HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED.

From a photograph, by Harrison, Galesburg, Illinois, of an ambrotype
owned by Mrs. W.J. Thomson of Monmouth, Illinois. This picture was
taken at Monmouth on October 11, 1858, by W.J. Thomson, after a speech
made in the town by Lincoln that day, and four days after the debate
between Lincoln and Douglas at Galesburg, Illinois, on October 7,
1858.]

But it was not long before there came the clashing inevitable between
two persons whose tastes and ambitions were so differe