r appreciated him, do set down the
thoughts I had as merely unjust things; he exceeds them all, indeed.
Yes, Mr. Chorley has been very kind to us. I had a kind note myself
from him a few days since, and do you know that we have a sort of hope
of seeing him in Italy this year, with dearest Mr. Kenyon, who has the
goodness to crown his goodness by a 'dream' of coming to see us? We
leave Pisa in April (did I tell you that?) and pass through Florence
towards the north of Italy--to _Venice_, for instance. In the way of
writing, I have not done much yet--just finished my rough sketch of
an anti-slavery ballad and sent it off to America, where nobody will
print it, I am certain, because I could not help making it bitter. If
they _do_ print it, I shall thank them more boldly in earnest than
I fancy now. Tell me of Mary Howitt's new collection of ballads--are
they good? I warmly wish that Mr. Chorley may succeed with his play;
but how can Miss Cushman promise a hundred nights for an untried
work?... Perhaps you may find the two last numbers of the 'Bells and
Pomegranates' less obscure--it seems so to me. Flush has grown an
absolute monarch and barks one distracted when he wants a door opened.
Robert spoils him, I think. Do think of me as your ever affectionate
and grateful

BA.

Have you seen 'Agnes de Misanie,' the new play by the author of
'Lucretia'? A witty feuilletoniste says of it that, besides all the
unities of Aristotle, it comprises, from beginning to end, _unity of
situation_. Not bad, is it? Madame Ancelot has just succeeded with a
comedy, called 'Une Annee a Paris.' By the way, _shall you go to Paris
this spring_?[157]

[Footnote 157: A list of the works composing Balzac's _Comedie
Humaine_ is attached to this letter for Miss Mitford's benefit.]

From Mr. Browning's family, though she had as yet had no opportunity
of making acquaintance with them face to face, Mrs. Browning from the
first met with an affectionate reception. The following is the first
now extant of a series of letters written by her to Miss Browning,
the poet's sister. The abrupt and private nature of the marriage
never seems to have caused the slightest coldness of feeling in this
quarter, though it must have caused anxiety; and the tone of the early
letters, in which so new and unfamiliar a relation had to be taken up,
does equal honour to the writer and to the recipient.

_To Miss Browning_
[Pisa: about February 1847.]

I must begin b