luently, and familiar with the ways of the best society in
Lexington, Kentucky, where she was born December 13, 1818. She was a
pupil of Madame Mantelli, whose celebrated seminary in Lexington was
directly opposite the residence of Henry Clay. The conversation at the
seminary was carried on entirely in French.

She visited Springfield, Illinois, in 1837, remained three months and
then returned to her native State. In 1839 she made Springfield her
permanent home. She lived with her eldest sister, Elizabeth, wife of
Ninian W. Edwards, Lincoln's colleague in the Legislature, and it was
not strange she and Lincoln should meet. Stephen A. Douglas was also
a friend of the Edwards family, and a suitor for her hand, but she
rejected him to accept the future President. She was one of the belles
of the town.

She is thus described at the time she made her home in
Springfield--1839:

"She was of the average height, weighing about a hundred and thirty
pounds. She was rather compactly built, had a well rounded face, rich
dark-brown hair, and bluish-gray eyes. In her bearing she was proud,
but handsome and vivacious; she was a good conversationalist, using with
equal fluency the French and English languages.

"When she used a pen, its point was sure to be sharp, and she wrote with
wit and ability. She not only had a quick intellect but an intuitive
judgment of men and their motives. Ordinarily she was affable and even
charming in her manners; but when offended or antagonized she could be
very bitter and sarcastic.

"In her figure and physical proportions, in education, bearing,
temperament, history--in everything she was the exact reverse of
Lincoln."

That Mrs. Lincoln was very proud of her husband there is no doubt; and
it is probable that she married him largely from motives of ambition.
She knew Lincoln better than he knew himself; she instinctively felt
that he would occupy a proud position some day, and it is a matter of
record that she told Ward Lamon, her husband's law partner, that "Mr.
Lincoln will yet be President of the United States."

Mrs. Lincoln was decidedly pro-slavery in her views, but this never
disturbed Lincoln. In various ways they were unlike. Her fearless,
witty, and austere nature had nothing in common with the calm,
imperturbable, and simple ways of her thoughtful and absent-minded
husband. She was bright and sparkling in conversation, and fit to grace
any drawing-room. She well knew that to marry