large fortune confers on its possessor.
Between Mrs. Bronson and Mr. Browning there sprang up one of those rare
and beautiful friendships that lasted during his lifetime, and to her
appreciation and many courtesies he owed much of the happiness of his
later years. In the autumn of 1880 Mrs. Bronson made Mr. Browning and
his sister her guests, placing at their disposal a suite of rooms in the
Palazzo Giustiniani Recanati--a palace adjoining her own--and each night
they dined and passed the evening with her, with music and conversation
to enchant the hours. After Mr. Browning's death, Mrs. Bronson was the
friend whom all pilgrims to his shrine in Venice felt it a special
privilege to meet and to hear speak of him. In her palace was a large
easy-chair, with a ribbon tied across the arms, in which Browning was
accustomed to sit, and which was held sacred to him. Mrs. Bronson was an
accomplished linguist, and the _habitues_ of her salon represented many
nationalities. Among these was the Princess Montenegro, the mother of
the present Queen of Italy.

It is little wonder that the Browning Palace was for so many years a
focus for all who revered and loved the wedded poets, Robert and
Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

In the marble court, roofed only by the blue Venetian sky, stood Mr.
Barrett Browning's statue of "Dryope" in bronze, on its marble
pedestal,--a beautiful conception of the Dryope of Keats,--the dweller
in forest solitudes whom the Hamadryads transformed into a poplar. Here
a fountain makes music all day long, and the court is also adorned in
summer by great Venetian jars of pink hydrangeas in full bloom. The
grand staircase, with its carved balustrade and the wide landing where a
rose window decorates the wall, leads to the lofty salons which were yet
as homelike as they were artistic during the residence of the Brownings.
Mr. Story's bust of Mrs. Browning, other portrait busts of both the
poets, sculptured by their artist son, and by others, and other
memorials abound. In the library were gathered many interesting volumes,
autographed from their authors, and many rare and choice editions, among
which was one of the "Sonnets from the Portuguese" in a sumptuous volume
whose artistic beauty found a fitting setting to Mrs. Browning's
immortal sonnets. Among other volumes were a collection of signed
"Etchings" by Sir Laurence Alma-Tadema; presentation copies from
Tennyson, Matthew Arnold, Aubrey De Vere, Walter Savage La