me. Nothing would make me more miserable than to believe you
miserable--nothing more happy than to know you were so."

Miss Owens had enough discernment to recognize the disinterestedness
of this love-making, and she refused Mr. Lincoln's offer. She found
him "deficient in those little links which make up the chain of a
woman's happiness," she said. The affair seems to have been a rather
vigorous flirtation on her part, which had interested and perhaps
flattered Mr. Lincoln. In the sincerity of his nature he feared he had
awakened a genuine attachment, and his notions of honor compelled
him to find out. When finally refused, he wrote a description of the
affair to a friend, in which he ridiculed himself unmercifully:

"I was mortified, it seemed to me, in a hundred different
ways. My vanity was deeply wounded by the reflection that I
had so long been too stupid to discover her intentions, and at
the same time never doubting that I understood them perfectly;
and also that she, whom I had taught myself to believe nobody
else would have, had actually rejected me with all my fancied
greatness. And, to cap the whole, I then for the first time
began to suspect that I was really a little in love with her.
But let it all go! I'll try and outlive it. Others have been
made fools of by the girls, but this can never with truth be
said of me. I most emphatically, in this instance, made a fool
of myself. I have now come to the conclusion never again
to think of marrying; and for this reason--I can never be
satisfied with any one who would be blockhead enough to have
me."