Lincoln made his first appearance in society when he was first sent to
Springfield, Ill., as a member of the State Legislature. It was not
an imposing figure which he cut in a ballroom, but still he was
occasionally to be found there. Miss Mary Todd, who afterward became
his wife, was the magnet which drew the tall, awkward young man from his
den. One evening Lincoln approached Miss Todd, and said, in his peculiar
idiom:
“Miss Todd, I should like to dance with you the worst way.” The young
woman accepted the inevitable, and hobbled around the room with him.
When she returned to her seat, one of her companions asked mischievously:
“Well, Mary, did he dance with you the worst way.”
“Yes,” she answered, “the very worst.”