in his thirty--fourth year. Miss Todd was the daughter of the Hon.
Robert T. Todd, of Lexington, Kentucky. She came to Springfield in 1839,
to live with her sister, Mrs. Ninian W. Edwards. "She was young," says
Mr. Lamon, "just twenty-one,--her family was of the best and her
connections in Illinois among the most refined and distinguished people.
Her mother having died when she was a little girl, she had been educated
under the care of a French lady. She was gifted with rare talents, had a
keen sense of the ridiculous, a ready insight into the weaknesses of
individual character, and a most fiery and ungovernable temper. Her
tongue and her pen were equally sharp. Highbred, proud, brilliant,
witty, and with a will that bent every one else to her purpose, she took
Lincoln captive. He was a rising politician, fresh from the people, and
possessed of great power among them. Miss Todd was of aristocratic and
distinguished family, able to lead through the awful portals of 'good
society' whomsoever they chose to countenance. It was thought that a
union between them could not fail of numerous benefits to both parties.
Mr. Edwards thought so; Mrs. Edwards thought so; and it was not long
before Mary Todd herself thought so. She was very ambitious, and even
before she left Kentucky announced her belief that she was destined to
be the wife of some future President. For a while she was courted by
Douglas as well as by Lincoln. Being asked which of them she intended to
have, she answered, 'The one that has the best chance of being
President.' She decided in favor of Lincoln; and in the opinion of some
of her husband's friends she aided to no small extent in the fulfilment
of the prophecy which the bestowal of her hand implied." Mrs. Edwards,
Miss Todd's sister, has related that "Lincoln was charmed with Mary's
wit and fascinated with her quick sagacity, her will, her nature and
culture. I have happened in the room," she says, "where they were
sitting, often and often, and Mary led the conversation. Lincoln would
listen, and gaze on her as if drawn by some superior power--irresistibly
so. He listened, but seldom said a word."

Preparations were made for the marriage between Lincoln and Miss Todd.
But they were interrupted by a painful occurrence--a sudden breaking out
of a fit of melancholy, or temporary insanity, such as had afflicted
Lincoln on a former occasion. This event has been made the subject of no
little gossip, into which it