row paper, (he always wrote thus for the press,) 'I am going to show
you, by the difference of length in these, the different degrees of
estimation in which I hold all you literary people. In each of these, one
of you is rolled up and fully discussed. Come, Virginia, help me!' And
one by one they unfolded them. At last they came to one which seemed
interminable. Virginia laughingly ran to one corner of the room with one
end, and her husband to the opposite with the other. 'And whose
lengthened sweetness long drawn out is that?' said I. 'Hear her!' he
cried, 'just as if her little vain heart didn't tell her it's herself!'

"My first meeting with the poet was at the Astor House. A few days
previous. Mr. Willis had handed me, at the _table d'hote_, that strange
and thrilling poem entitled 'The Raven,' saying that the author wanted my
opinion of it. Its effect upon me was so singular, so like that of 'weird
unearthly music,' that it was with a feeling almost of dread, I heard he
desired an introduction. Yet I could not refuse without seeming
ungrateful, because I had just heard of his enthusiastic and partial
eulogy of my writings, in his lecture on American Literature. I shall
never forget the morning when I was summoned to the drawing-room by Mr.
Willis to receive him. With his proud and beautiful head erect, his dark
eyes flashing with the elective light of feeling and of thought, a
peculiar, an inimitable blending of sweetness and hauteur in his
expression and manner, he greeted me, calmly, gravely, almost coldly; yet
with so marked an earnestness that I could not help being deeply
impressed by it. From that moment until his death we were friends;
although we met only during the first year of our acquaintance. And in
his last words, ere reason had forever left her imperial throne in that
overtasked brain, I have a touching memento of his undying faith and
friendship.

"During that year, while traveling for my health, I maintained a
correspondence with Mr. Poe, in accordance with the earnest entreaties of
his wife, who imagined that my influence over him had a restraining and
beneficial effect. It _had_, as far as this--that having solemnly
promised me to give up the use of stimulants, he so firmly respected his
promise and me, as never once, during our whole acquaintance, to appear
in my presence when in the slightest degree affected by them. Of the
charming love and confidence that existed between his wife and himself,