ld do with your body if you
died yourself.' I am afraid poor Lockhart is really in a dangerous state
of health, and that it would have been better if he had had something
tenderer and more considerate than a dukedom travelling with him under
his circumstances. He called upon us, and took a great fancy to Robert,
I understand, as being 'not at all like a damned literary man.'

Penini is overwhelmed with attentions and gifts of all kinds, and
generally acknowledged as the king of the children here. Mrs. Page, the
wife of the distinguished American artist, gave a party in honor of him
the other day. There was an immense cake inscribed '_Penini_' in sugar;
and he sat at the head of the table and did the honors. You never saw a
child so changed in point of shyness. He will go anywhere with anybody,
and talk, and want none of us to back him. Wilson is only instructed not
to come till it is 'velly late' to fetch him away. He talks to Fanny
Kemble, who 'dashes' most people. 'I not aflaid of nossing,' says he, in
his eloquent English. Mr. Fisher's cartoon of him is very pretty, but
doesn't do him justice in the delicacy of the lower part of the face.
Yet I can't complain of Mr. Fisher after the admirable likeness he has
painted of Robert. It is really _satisfying_ to me. You will see it in
London. Oh, how cruel it is that we can't buy it, Sarianna; I have a
sort of hope that Mr. Kenyon may--but zitto, zitto![34] Arabel will be
very grateful to you for the drawings....

[_Endorsed by Miss Browning_, '_Part of a letter_']

* * * * *

The plans, thus confidently spoken of, for a visit to Paris and London
in the summer of this year, did not attain fulfilment. The Brownings
left Rome for Florence about the end of May, intending to stay there
only a few weeks; but their arrangements were altered by letters
received from England, and ultimately they remained in Florence until
the summer of the following year. Whether for this reason, or because
the poems were not, after all, ready for press, the printing of Mr.
Browning's new volumes ('Men and Women') was also postponed, and they
did not appear until 1855; while 'Aurora Leigh' was still a long way
from completion.

* * * * *

_To Miss Mitford_

Rome: May 10, 1854.

My ever dearest Miss Mitford,--Your letter pained me to a degree which I
will not pain you by expressing farther. Now, I do not write to press
for a