He finally recovered his spirits and continued his law studies, politics, and surveying. He removed to Springfield two years later, became a partner of one of the leading attorneys of the State, and took quite an active part in the social affairs of the State capital. Although careless of forms and indifferent to the conventionalities of the day, he was recognized as a rising man, and his humor and conversational powers made him a great favorite. His name appears frequently in the reports of social events at that time; he was an habitual speaker at public banquets and one of the managers of a cotillion party given at the American House, December 16, 1839. [Illustration: COTILLION PARTY. The pleasure of your Company is respectfully solicited at a Cotillion Party, to be given at the "American House", on to-morrow evening at 7 o'clock, P. M. December 16th, 1839 M. H. RIDGELY, J. A. M'CLENNAND, R. ALLEN, N. H. WASH, F. W. TOLD, G. A. DOUGLASS, W. S. PRENTICE, N. W. EDWARDS, J. E. SPEED, J. SHIELDS, E. D. TAYLOR, E. H. MERRYMAN, N. E. WHITESIDE, M. EASTHAM, J. R. DILLER, A. LINCOLN, Managers. Copyright, 1900, by McClure, Phillips & Co. AN INVITATION TO A SPRINGFIELD COTILLION PARTY By special permission, from the collection of C. F. Gunther, Esq., Chicago ] About a year after the death of Anne Rutledge he became involved in a rather ludicrous complication with Miss Mary Owens. It was an undignified and mortifying predicament, but the way he carried himself showed his high sense of honor and obedience to his convictions of duty. It began with a jest. The young lady had visited Springfield, where she had received considerable attention, and Mrs. Able, her sister, before starting for a visit to Kentucky, told Lincoln that she would bring her sister back with her if he would agree to marry her. The bantering offer was accepted, and a few months later he learned with consternation that the young lady expected him to fulfil the agreement. Lincoln was greatly distressed, but his sense of honor would not permit him to deny his obligations. To Mrs. O. H. Browning, whose husband was afterwards a United States Senator and a member of the Cabinet, he explained his predicament, as follows: "I had told her sister that I would take her for better or for worse, and I make a point of honor and conscience in all things to stick to my word, especially if others had been induced to act on it, which in this case I have no doubt they had, for I was now fairly convinced that no other man on earth would have her, and hence the conclusion they were bent on holding me to my bargain. At once I determined to consider her my wife, and this done, all my powers of discovery were put to work in search of perfections in her which might be fairly set off against her defects."