shipped him with a supreme
infatuation that was blind to all his faults. The romance of the first
months of married life seemed never to wear off, and through all their
sorrows--and they were many and bitter--their love burned as brightly
as at first.

To Mrs. Clemm, also, Poe was always a devoted son, and through all his
waywardness; and folly and sin she clung to him with the devotion of a
true mother. The sturdy figure of this woman shows through all the dark
spots of his life, casting a gleam of brightness. She was a strong,
masculine-looking woman, full of energy, and took upon herself all the
practical affairs of the little household. She received the money from
Poe, and expended it in her own way; and she had a faculty of getting a
good deal of comfort out of a very little money. So their home was
almost always comfortable, even when they were poorest. And she never
gave way to reproaches, even when Poe was at his worst. She seemed to
consider his failing only in the light of a misfortune, and never
blamed, but always pitied him. She worshipped his genius almost as
blindly as did Virginia, and it is pleasant to think that with all their
misfortunes and privations, they had much real happiness in their little
home. Poe was very proud and very fond of Virginia, and liked to take
strangers to see her. She had a voice of wonderful sweetness and sung
exquisitely, and in some of their more prosperous days she had her harp
and piano. One evening when she was singing she ruptured a blood-vessel,
and for a time her life was despaired of Poe describes the affliction
long afterwards in a letter as follows:--

"Six years ago a wife whom I loved as no man ever loved before,
ruptured a blood-vessel in singing. I took leave of her forever,
and underwent all the agonies of her death. She recovered
partially, and I again hoped. At the end of a year the vessel again
broke. I went through precisely the same scene. Then
again--again--and even once again at varying intervals. Each time I
felt all the agonies of her death, and at each accession of the
disorder I loved her more dearly and clung to her life with more
desperate pertinacity. But I am constitutionally
sensitive,--nervous to an unusual degree. I became insane, with
long intervals of possible sanity. During these fits of absolute
unconsciousness, I drank--God only knows how often or how much. As
a matter of c