strings: This letter to Mrs. Browning recounts a curious love affair between Mary Owen and Lincoln. Miss Owen refused him because he was " deficient in those little links which go to make up the chains of a woman's happiness," but it was probably because of the lack of ardor in his suit. Many years after when Mrs. Browning notified Lincoln that his letter was about to be published he cautioned her there was in it " too much truth for print."