her in good health, and in all other respects just as I left her; 'no
change' meaning what it does to me who remember her goodness so well.
It will be delightful to meet Edith again, if only it may be that she
arrives while we are yet with you, even before, perhaps.

"Can I tell you anything about my journey except that it was so
agreeable an one? On the first evening as I stepped outside our
carriage for a moment, I caught sight of a well-known face. 'Dr.
Butler, surely.' You have heard of his marriage the other day to a
learnedest of young ladies, who beat all the men last year at Greek.
He insisted on introducing me to her; I had seen her once before
without undergoing that formality and willingly I shook hands with a
sprightly young person ... pretty, and grand-daughterly, she is,
however, only twenty-six years his junior. Then, this happened; the
little train from Montebelluna to Feltre was crowded--we could find no
room except in a smoking carriage--wherein I observed a good-natured,
elderly gentleman, an Italian, I took for granted. Presently he said,
'Can I offer you an English paper?' 'What, are you English?' 'Oh, yes,
and I know you,--who are going to see your son at Primiero.' 'Why,
who can you be?' 'One who has seen you often.' 'Not surely, Mr.
Malcolm?' 'Well, nobody else.' So ensued an affectionate greeting, he
having been the guardian angel of Pen in all his chafferings about the
purchase of the palazzo. He gave me abundance of information, and
satisfied me on many points. I had been anxious to write and thank him
as he deserved, but this provided an earlier and more graceful way,
for a beginning at least.

"Pen is at work on a pretty picture, a peasant girl whom he picked up
in the neighborhood, and his literal treatment stands him in good
stead; he is reproducing her cleverly, at any rate, he takes pains
enough."

Towards the end of September they joined in Venice the "beloved friend,"
whose genius for friendship only made each sojourn with her more beautiful
than the preceding, if that which was perfect could receive an added
degree. "It was curious to see," wrote Mrs. Bronson, "how on each of his
arrivals in Venice he took up his life precisely as he had left it."
Browning and his sister frequently went on Sundays to the Waldensian
chapel, where in this autumn there was a preacher o