ee nobody else in
the evening, I never heard till just now and _from Papa himself_, that
'George was invited to meet Mr. Browning and Mr. Procter.' How
surprised you will be. It must have been a sudden thought of Mr.
Kenyon's.

And I have been thinking, thinking since last night that I wrote you
then a letter all but ... insolent ... which, do you know, I feel half
ashamed to look back upon this morning--particularly what I wrote
about 'missions of humanity'--now was it not insolent of me to write
so? If I could take my letter again I would dip it into Lethe between
the lilies, instead of the post office:--but I can't--so if you
wondered, you must forget as far as possible, and understand how it
was, and that I was in brimming spirits when I wrote, from two causes
... first, because I had your letter which was a pure goodness of
yours, and secondly because you were 'noticeably' better you said, or
'noticeably well' rather, to mind my quotations. So I wrote what I
wrote, and gave it to Arabel when she came in at midnight, to give it
to Henrietta who goes out before eight in the morning and often takes
charge of my letters, and it was too late, at the earliest this
morning, to feel a little ashamed. Miss Thomson told me that she had
determined to change the type of the few pages of her letterpress
which had been touched, and that therefore Mr. Burges's revisions of
my translations should be revised back again. She appears to be a very
acute person, full of quick perceptions--naturally quick, and
carefully trained--a little over anxious perhaps about mental lights,
and opening her eyes still more than she sees, which is a common fault
of clever people, if one must call it a fault. I like her, and she is
kind and cordial. Will she ask you to help her book with a translation
or two, I wonder. Perhaps--if the courage should come. Dearest, how I
shall think of you this evening, and how near you will seem, not to be
here. I had a letter from Mr. Mathews the other day, and smiled to
read in it just what I had expected, that he immediately sent Landor's
verses on you to a _few editors_, friends of his, in order to their
communication to the public. He received my apology for myself with
the utmost graciousness. A kind good man he is.

After all, do you know, I am a little vexed that I should have even
_seemed_ to do wrong in my speech about the letters. It must have been
wrong, if it seemed so to you, I fancy now. Only I really