for continental simplicities of expense; and
neither my health nor our pecuniary circumstances," she says, "would admit
of our entering it. The fact is, we are not like our child, who kisses
everybody who smiles on him! You can scarcely imagine to yourself how we
have retreated from the kind advances of the English here, and struggled
with hands and feet to keep out of this gay society." But it is alluring
to imagine the charm of their chosen circle, the Storys always first and
nearest, and these other gifted and interesting friends.

Mr. Story is so universally thought of as a sculptor that it is not always
realized how eminent he was in the world of letters as well. Two volumes
of his poems contain many of value, and a few, as the "Cleopatra," "An
Estrangement," and the immortal "Io Victis," that the world would not
willingly let die; his "Roba di Roma" is one of those absolutely
indispensable works regarding the Eternal City; and several other books
of his, in sketch and criticism, enrich literature. A man of the most
courtly and distinguished manner, of flawless courtesy, an artist of
affluent expressions, it is not difficult to realize how congenial and
delightful was his companionship, as well as that of his accomplished
wife, to the Brownings. Indeed, no biographical record could be made of
either household, with any completeness, that did not largely include the
other. In all the lovely chronicles of literature and life there is no
more beautiful instance of an almost lifelong friendship than that between
Robert Browning and William Wetmore Story.

In this spring of 1850 Browning was at work on his "Christmas Eve and
Easter Day," and Casa Guidi preserved a liberal margin of quiet and
seclusion. "You can scarcely imagine," wrote Mrs. Browning, "the retired
life we live.... We drive day by day through the lovely Cascine, only
sweeping through the city. Just such a window where Bianca Capello looked
out to see the Duke go by,--and just such a door where Tasso stood, and
where Dante drew his chair out to sit."

When Curtis visited Florence he wrote to Browning begging to be permitted
to call, and he was one of the welcomed visitors in Casa Guidi. Browning
took him on many of those romantic excursions with which the environs of
Florence abound,--to Settignano, where Michael Angelo was born; to the old
Roman amphitheater in Fiesole; to that somber, haunted summit of San
Miniato, and to Vallombrosa, where he played t