Poe's possessed of a devil, I tell you, who gets the better of him once in a while--it did the night of St.George's dinner." "Very charitable in you, Richard," exclaimed Pancoast, another dissenter--"and perhaps it will be just as well for his family, if he has any, to accept your view--but, devil or no devil, you must confess, Horn, that it was pretty hard on St.George.If the man has any sense of refinement--and he must have from the way he writes--the best way out of it is for him to own up like a man and say that Guy's barkeeper filled him too full of raw whiskey, and that he didn't come to until it was too late--that he was very sorry, and wouldn't do it again.

That's what I would have done, and that's what you, Richard, or any other gentleman, would have done." Others, who got their information second hand, followed the example of St.George's guests censuring or excusing the poet in accordance with their previous likes or dislikes.

The "what-did-I-tell-yous"-- Bowdoin among them--and there were several--broke into roars of laughter when they learned what had happened in the Temple mansion.

So did those who had not been invited, and who still felt some resentment at St.George's oversight.
Another group; and these were also to be found at the club--thought only of St.George--old Murdock, voicing their opinions when he said: "Temple laid himself out, so I hear, on that dinner, and some of us know what that means.

And a dinner like that, remember, counts with St.George.