over-work. I hate to speak of what
is only too present with me,--your own health,--I trust you have got
rid of that cough, (all dreadful things go with a cough in my
memory.)...

... My book, which you kindly inquire about, is out of my hands and in
print, but the publishing, the when and how, concerns the publisher. I
do not expect to see the completed thing for another month.

Yes, I felt so lovingly to the Giustinian-Reconnati that I could not
bear cutting the link allowed by the Place and Date that were appended
to the Ms., and you permit, so all is well, if you remember me as ever
affectionately yours,

ROBERT BROWNING.

Under date of October 23, 1884, Browning says in one letter:

"I saw Huxley's brother-in-law, Sir Robert Collier, last evening, at
Dr. Granville's, and inquired about the stay in Venice. It will be a
very short one as he has to return almost immediately for the marriage
of his daughter Rachel; I can hardly think he will re-return, the
ceremony at an end, yet he may; and in that case he shall be informed
of your goodness to himward, in apostolically appropriate language. He
is a thoroughly admirable person in all but his inconsiderateness in
this waste of a precious life. I duly told the Storys how much you
wanted to see them, and they probably have seen you by this time. Mrs.
Story meant to rest at Paris, and forego the Amiens route. She has
been unwell, but I thought her appearance very satisfactory. I dined
with them last week at Mr. Lowell's, and called there on Sunday. I met
Henry James the other day, and surprised as well as inspirited him by
the news that you were so near, and, as I believed, so soon to be
nearer. Now write to me, tell me all you are about to do; how is dear
Edith?...

O, no, Pen is none of mine to outward view, but wholly his
mother's--in some respects, at least. At the same age there was small
difference between Pen's face and that of the brother she lost,--to
judge by a drawing I possess...."

To the Marchesa Peruzzi di' Medici who sent to him a translation she had
made of the "Ricordo Autobiografici" of Giovanni Dupre, Browning thus
writes:[16]

"It is not so very 'little' an affair, and in the fear that when my
sister has finished it, I may have to begin my own reading, and end it
so late as to lead you to suppose that eith