s the only
exception I know of."

This tirade was doubtless excited partly by a scandal just now started
by one of the literary set in question concerning Poe and a young
married lady of Lowell. While delivering a lecture in that city he had
been hospitably entertained at her home, where he spent several days,
with the usual result of contracting a sentimental friendship with the
charming hostess, whom he calls "Annie." During the latter part of his
engagement to Mrs. Whitman his visits and attentions to this lady did
not escape the notice of the "literary set," and a scandal was at once
started by one of them, who drew the attention of "Annie's" husband to
the matter. He accepted Poe's explanation and his proposal rather to
give up the society of these friends than to be the cause of trouble to
them, saying:

"I cannot and will not have it upon my conscience that I have interfered
with the domestic happiness of _the only being on earth whom I have
loved at the same time with purity and with truth_."

Certainly an extraordinary avowal to be made to the lady's husband; and
we ask ourselves to how many women had he made a similar declaration?

We have seen that when Poe for the last time left Mrs. Whitman's he went
direct to Fordham, where, said Mrs. Clemm, he raved about "Annie," and
even sent to her, reminding her of the "holy promise which he had
exacted from her in their hour of parting, that she would come to him on
his bed of death," and now claiming the fulfilment of that promise.
Whether or not she complied does not appear; but it is more than likely
that the lines, "_For Annie_," were suggested by his fever-dreams of her
presence, first written while still half-delirious, and subsequently
slightly altered to their present form. This piece, with the lines, "_To
My Mother_," after being declined by all the more prominent magazines,
finally appeared in the cheap "_Boston Weekly_," and must have been a
surprise to "Annie" and her husband.

But there was one woman of the "literary set" who showed that she at
least was not deserving of the sweeping condemnation wherewith the irate
poet had visited them. This was Mrs. Anna Estelle Lewis, a young poetess
who, with her husband, was on friendly terms with Poe, and whose poems
he had favorably noticed. Poe was still, mentally and physically, in a
state which rendered him incapable of writing, and the condition at
Fordham was deplorable. Suspecting this state of things,