She was wise, she was witty; and no
one could be long in her presence without becoming aware of the sweet
and generous sympathy of her nature."

Up to this time Poe and Mrs. Whitman had never met, though Mrs. Osgood
says that the lady had written to him and sent him a valentine, of which
he had taken no notice. This was against him in his present venture, but
he was not discouraged. He set about his courtship in his usual manner,
by addressing to Mrs. Whitman (June 10) some lines--"_To
Helen_"--commencing:

"I saw thee once--once only;--"

supposed to commemorate his first sight of her as, passing her garden
"one July midnight," he beheld her robed in white, reclining on a bank
of violets, with her eyes raised heavenward.

"No footsteps stirred; the hated world all slept,
Save only thee and me. Oh, heaven--oh, God!
How my heart beats in coupling those two words--
Save only _thee and me_!"

So, he continues, he gazed entranced until--the hour being past midnight
and a storm-cloud threatening--the lady very properly arose and
disappeared from his sight; all but her eyes. These remained and
followed him home, and had followed him ever since:

"----two sweetly scintillant
Venuses; unextinguished by the sun."

All this must have been very gratifying to Mrs. Whitman--if she believed
in it--but, remembering her neglected valentine, she was in no haste to
acknowledge the poetic offering, and Poe, after waiting some weeks, had
his attention drawn in another direction.

He had written to his friend, Mr. Mackenzie, concerning his matrimonial
aspirations, and he now received an answer, suggesting that he come to
Richmond and try his fortune with an old-time school-girl sweetheart,
Miss Sarah Elmira Royster, now a rich "Widow Shelton," who had several
times of late inquired after him and sent her "remembrances."

Animated by this new hope, he, late in the summer of 1847, proceeded to
Richmond, where he visited among his friends and called upon Mrs.
Shelton, but especially paid attention to a pretty widow, a Mrs. Clarke.
This lady, when a resident of Louisville, Kentucky, many years after
Poe's death, gave to the editor of a paper some reminiscences of him at
this time.

"The good lady was deeply interested that the world might think well of
Poe, and grew warm on the subject of his wrongs. She claimed that the
poet was a Virginian, and, like most Virginians, she is very proud of
her State. She wo