Under the pseudonyms of "Amaryllis" and "The Marchioness," Agnes Mary Scott became a daring social journalist in Ottawa.

Agnes Mary Scott was born on 12 December 1863 in Quebec City, Canada East, to Allan John Scott (1834-1868) and Margaret Cathleen Teresa Heron (1839-1898). Agnes's father died when she was young, and she grew up in a shabby house in Ottawa. After her mother died in 1898, Agnes moved in with her uncle. Her sharp wit and social connections helped her establish a career in social reporting, a field which had slowly opened up to women. She began reporting on Ottawa society around 1896, with an article on a ball given by Lady Aberdeen (1857-1939) published in the Ottawa magazine . Agnes supported most of the ideas of the "new woman." When the National Council of Women of Canada was formed in 1898, she joined, saying, "The best men in the land are the men who admire and help."

Agnes used a pseudonym during the early years of her career in journalism. For , she wrote freelance columns as "Amaryllis" until 1902. She was a staff member of the from December 1897 to February 1903, where she wrote as "The Marchioness." Agnes also wrote as a correspondent for the and occasionally on other subjects for , including reporting on her trip to Paris in 1900.

Agnes's columns tended to poke fun at social conventions and rigid customs, and none was immune to her criticism and acerbic wit; the columns reveal much about the social landscape in Ottawa during the early years under Sir Wilfrid Laurier (1841-1919), of whom she was a supporter. In an article published on 21 October 1899, she described an encounter with the Prime Minister on a streetcar. Perhaps her most daring articles were those that touched on Laurier's romantic relationship with Émilie Lavergne (1849-1930). Her columns often "provoked much comment and occasionally outrage, [but] she was always invited back, a pattern which suggests that Ottawa in those days was a more sophisticated capital than is generally supposed."

When she married William Patrick Davis (1873-1916), a secretary several years her junior, on 29 April 1903, her career came to an end. It is likely that their marriage was one of convenience, and it was evidently unhappy: on 24 December 1916, William died suddenly in the apartment where he'd been keeping a mistress for years. The widowed Agnes, supported by her husband's estate and her family, found time to entertain, as well as to research and write papers for the Women's Canadian Historical Society of Ottawa. By 1926, living under now-strained financial circumstances, Agnes moved with her daughters to France where living was cheaper. She briefly "reinvented herself as a writer" and contributed articles to the . She died in Paris of poliomyelitis on 19 November 1927.

For a more detailed biography, see her entry in the .