Yes, EPS and the man he dedicated the story to had a romantic friendship in the 1880s-90s. Some of his early boys' adventure stories are also dedicated to him. Anyway, this man broke off their friendshp to get married, and basically broke EPS's heart. Many of the details in the story are from their life together (they were both super into music, etc). James Gifford's "Imre" intro has more info about it... but to me, this story is basically EPS moving on and forgiving him--he dedicated more stories to him in the 1920s, so it kind of makes sense?