n, music rather than speech," and
she was "captivated" by his _naivete_, as he stopped every now and then
to say, "There's a wonderful touch!" Mrs. Browning writes to Mrs. Tennyson
of "the deep pleasure we had in Mr. Tennyson's visit to us." She adds:

"He didn't come back, as he said he would, to teach me the 'Brook'
(which I persist, nevertheless, in fancying I understand a little),
but he did so much and left such a voice (both him 'and a voice!')
crying out 'Maud' to us, and helping the effect of the poem by the
personality, that it's an increase of joy and life to us ever."

[Illustration: THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN, FILIPPO LIPPI.

IN THE ACCADEMIA DI BELLE ARTI, FLORENCE.

"_Ringed by a bowery, flowery angel-brood,_
_Lilies and vestments and white faces...._"

Fra Lippo Lippi]

Deciding to pass the ensuing winter in Paris, the Brownings found
themselves anxious to make the change, that they might feel settled for
the time, as she needed entire freedom from demands that she might proceed
with her "Aurora Leigh." He had conceived the idea of revising and
recasting "Sordello." They passed an evening with Ruskin, however, and
presented "young Leighton" to him. They met Carlyle at Forster's, finding
him "in great force"--of denunciations. They met Kinglake, and were at the
Proctors, and of the young poet, Anne Adelaide Proctor, Mrs. Browning
says, "How I like Adelaide's face!" Mrs. Sartoris and Mrs. Kemble were
briefly in London, and Kenyon, the beloved friend, vanished to the Isle of
Wight. To Penini's great delight, Wilson, the maid, married a Florentine,
one Ferdinando Romagnoli, who captivated the boy by his talk of Florence,
and Penini caught up his pretty Italian enthusiasms, and discoursed of
Florentine skies, and the glories of the Cascine, to any one whom he could
waylay.

In Paris they first established themselves in the Rue de Grenelle, in the
old Faubourg San Germain, a location they soon exchanged for a more
comfortable apartment in the Rue de Colisee, just off the Champs Elysees.
Here they renewed their intercourse with Lady Elgin (now an invalid) and
with her daughter, Lady Augusta Bruce, Madame Mohl, and with other
friends. Mrs. Browning was absorbed in her great poem, which she was able
to complete, however, only after their return to London the next June, and
never did an important literary work proceed with less visible craft. She
lay on her sofa, half supported