Text: Edgar Allan Poe (?), “A Silly Girl of a Numerous Kind . . .” (reprint), from The Evening Mirror (New York), November 11, 1844, vol. 1, no. 6, p. 81, col. 3

It is now forty years since my first introduction to Sir Walter Scott. I must ever remember with some degree of shame my conduct on that occasion. Young, half spoilt by flattery, and newly married, I received, when I heard Mr. Scott spoken of as a great lion, to let him see that his roar, mane, and claws had no terror for me. Accordingly, when he addressed me at table, asking me to drink wine with him, or sing, I affected not to hear him, or gave him very laconic answers. It would not be worth while for me to tell this tale to my own discredit, were it not to add, that Scott, instead of taking offence, so won me by his kind and polite behavior, that, ere an hour had elapsed, I was heartily ashamed of my folly. Here was the nobleness of the true lion indeed.