Mrs. Lewis and
her husband invited Poe to visit them at their home in Brooklyn, and Mr.
Lewis says that thenceforth they frequently had both himself and Mrs.
Clemm to stay with them. It was this kindly couple that R. H. Stoddard
so sharply satirizes in his "_Reminiscences_" of Poe, while accepting an
evening's hospitality at their home after the poet's death. On this
occasion he met with Mrs. Clemm, of whom he has given a pen picture of
which we instinctively recognize the life-likeness. We can see the good
lady seated serenely among the company in her "black bombazine and
conventional widow's cap," lightly fingering her eye-glasses, as was her
company habit, and with her strongly marked features wearing that
"benevolent" smile which was characteristic of her most amiable moods.
"She assured me," says Stoddard, "that she had often heard her Eddie
speak of me--which I doubted--and that she believed she had also heard
him speak of the stripling by my side--which was an impossibility....
She regretted that she had no more autographs to dispose of, but hinted
that she could manufacture them, since she could exactly imitate her
Eddie's handwriting; and this she told as though it had been to her
credit."

Deeply chagrined at the ending of his affair with Mrs. Whitman, and
consequent disappointment in regard to the _Stylus_, Poe now, encouraged
by his mother-in-law, again turned his thoughts to Mrs. Shelton.

It was in July that he and Mrs. Clemm left Fordham, he to proceed to
Richmond, and she, having let their rooms until his return, to stay with
the Lewises. Mr. Lewis says that it was at his front door that Poe took
an affectionate leave of them all; Mrs. Clemm, ever watchful and careful
against possible temptation or pitfalls by the way, accompanying him to
the boat to see him off. In parting from her he spoke cheeringly and
affectionately. "God bless you, my own darling Muddie. Do not fear for
Eddie. See how good I will be while away; and I will come back to love
and comfort you."[8]

[8] Ingram.

And so, smiling and hopeful, the devoted mother stood upon the pier and
watched to the last the receding form which she was never again to
behold.

CHAPTER XXVII.

AGAIN IN RICHMOND.

When Poe came to Richmond on this visit, he went first to Duncan Lodge,
but afterward, for sake of the convenience of being in the city, took
board at the old _Swan Tavern_, on Broad street, once a fashionable
hostelry, but at