d bakers.' So we keep out of
scrapes yet, you see....

Your grateful and most affectionate
BA.

We have had the most delightful letter from Carlyle, who has the
goodness to say that not for years has a marriage occurred in his
private circle in which he so heartily rejoiced as in ours. He is a
personal friend of Robert's, so that I have reason to be very proud
and glad.

Robert's best regards to you both always, and he is no believer in
magnetism (only _I_ am). Do mention Mr. C. Hanford's health. How
strange that he should come to witness my marriage settlement! Did you
hear?

[Footnote 162: Miss Henrietta Barrett was engaged to Captain Surtees
Cook, an engagement of which her brothers, as well as her father,
disapproved, partly on the ground of insufficiency of income.
Ultimately the difficulty was solved in the same way as in the case of
Mrs. Browning.]

_To Miss Mitford_
Florence: August 20, [1847],

I have received your letter at last, my ever dearest Miss Mitford, not
the missing letter, but the one which comes to make up for it and to
catch up my thoughts, which were grumbling at high tide, I do assure
you.... As you observed last year (not without reason), these are the
days of marrying and giving in marriage. Mr. Horne, you see[163] ...
With all my heart I hope he may be very happy. Men risk a good deal in
marriage, though not as much as women do; and on the other hand, the
singleness of a man when his youth is over is a sadder thing than the
saddest which an unmarried woman can suffer. Nearly all my friends
of both sexes have been draining off into marriage these two years,
scarcely one will be left in the sieve, and I may end by saying that
I have happiness enough for my own share to be divided among them all
and leave everyone, contented. For me, I take it for pure magic, this
life of mine. Surely nobody was ever so happy before. I shall wake
some morning with my hair all dripping out of the enchanted bucket,
or if not we shall both claim the 'Flitch' next September, if you can
find one for us in the land of Cockaigne, drying in expectancy of the
revolution in Tennyson's 'Commonwealth.' Well, I don't agree with Mr.
Harness in admiring the lady of 'Locksley Hall.' I _must_ either pity
or despise a woman who could have married Tennyson and chose a common
man. If happy in her choice, I despise her. That's matter of opinion,
of course. You may call it matter of foolishness when I add that I
personall