ies' showed 'Beelzebub
with a bearde,' even so has the east wind had a 'bearde' of late, in a
full growth of bristling exaggerations--the English spring-winds have
excelled themselves in evil this year; and I have not been down-stairs
yet.--_But_ I am certainly stronger and better than I was--that is
undeniable--and I _shall_ be better still. You are not going away
soon--are you? In the meantime you do not know what it is to be ... a
little afraid of Paracelsus. So right about the Italians! and the
'rose porporine' which made me smile. How is the head?

Ever yours,

E.B.B.

Is the 'Flight of the Duchess' in the portfolio? Of course you must
ring the Bell. That poem has a strong heart in it, to begin _so_
strongly. Poor Hood! And all those thoughts fall mixed together. May
God bless you.

[Footnote 1: Aeschylus, _Agamemnon_ 36: 'An ox hath trodden on my
tongue'--a Greek proverb implying silence.]

_E.B.B. to R.B._

Sunday--in the last hour of it.
[Post-mark, May 12, 1845.]

May I ask how the head is? just under the bag? Mr. Kenyon was here
to-day and told me such bad news that I cannot sleep to-night
(although I did think once of doing it) without asking such a question
as this, dear Mr. Browning.

Let me hear how you are--Will you? and let me hear (if I can) that it
was prudence or some unchristian virtue of the sort, and not a dreary
necessity, which made you put aside the engagement for Tuesday--for
Monday. I had been thinking so of seeing you on Tuesday ... with my
sister's eyes--for the first sight.

And now if you have done killing the mules and the dogs, let me have
a straight quick arrow for myself, if you please. Just a word, to say
how you are. I ask for no more than a word, lest the writing should be
hurtful to you.

May God bless you always.

Your friend,

E.B.B.

_R.B. to E.B.B._

Monday.
[Post-mark, May 12, 1845.]

My dear, own friend, I am quite well now, or next to it--but this is
how it was,--I have gone out a great deal of late, and my head took to
ringing such a literal alarum that I wondered what was to come of it;
and at last, a f