h?
Here it is with all my heart. I wonder I dare be so frank this
morning, however, for a note just rec'd from Isa mentions an instance
of your acuteness, that strikes me with a certain awe. "Kate," she
says, "persists that the 'Curse for a Nation' is for America, and not
England." You persist, do you? No doubt against the combined
intelligence of our friends who show such hunger and thirst for a new
poem of Ba's--and, when they get it, digest the same as you see.
"Write a nation's curse for me," quoth the antislavery society five
years ago, "and send it over the Western sea." "Not so," replied poor
little Ba, "for my heart is sore for my own lands' sins, which are
thus and thus,--what curse assign to another land when heavy for the
sins of mine?" "Write it for that very reason," rejoined Ba's cheerer,
"because thou hast strength to see and hate a foul thing done within
thy gate," and so, after a little more dallying, she wrote and sent
over the Western seas what all may read, but it appears only Kate
Field, out of all Florence, can understand. It seems incredible. How
did you find out, beside, the meaning of all these puzzling passages
which I quote in the exact words of the poem? In short, you are not
only the delightful Kate Field which I always knew you to be, but the
sole understander of Ba in all Florence. I can't get over it....

Browning, the husband, means to try increasingly and somewhat
intelligibly to explain to all his intimates at Florence, with the
sole exception of Kate Field; to whose comprehension he will rather
endeavor to rise, than to stoop, henceforth. And so, with true love
from Ba to Kate Field, and our united explanation to all other
friends, that the subject matter of the present letter is by no means
the annexation of Savoy and Nice, she will believe me,

Hers very faithfully

ROBERT BROWNING.

To Kate Field Mrs. Browning wrote, the letter undated, but evidently about
this time, apparently in reply to some request of Miss Field's to be
permitted to write about them for publication:

MY DEAR KATE,--I can't put a seal on your lips when I know them to be
so brave and true. Take out your license, then, to name me as you
please, only remembering, dear, that even kind words are not always
best spoken. Here is the permission, then, to say nothing about your
fr