illiancy was their least distinction. She found
them both "noble and sympathetic," and her "dear Mr. Page" and "Hatty"
(Miss Hosmer) "an immense favorite with us both," she said of her
husband and herself; these and the Storys made up the special circle for
the Brownings in Rome. "The Sartoris house has the best society in
Rome," writes Mrs. Browning to Miss Mitford, "and exquisite music, of
course. We met Lockhart there and my husband sees a good deal of him....
A little society," she says, "is good for soul and body, and on the
Continent it is easy to get a handful of society without paying too dear
for it. This is an advantage of Continental life."

Mrs. Browning greatly admired the work of Mr. Page, whose portraits she
found "like Titian's." But the tinted statues of Gibson seemed to her
inartistic. His famous painted Venus she called "pretty," but only as a
wax doll might be, not as a work of genuine art. Then Thackeray and his
two daughters came; Miss Anne (now known to the world of literature as
Anne Thackeray Ritchie) was a special favorite with Mrs. Browning.

Coming to Rome at one time from Florence in midwinter, the Brownings
found that the Storys had taken an apartment for them (in the Via Bocca
di Leone), and they arrived to find lighted fires and lamps. Their
journey had included a week's visit at Assisi, studying the rich art of
Cimabue and Giotto in the church of the great Franciscan monastery. Mrs.
Browning visited studios in Rome and found that of Mr. Crawford more
interesting to her than Mr. Gibson's, but no artist is "as near" to her,
as she herself says, as Mr. Page. The Storys left the Porta Pinciana to
live at No. 93 in the Piazza di Spagna, and in the same house with the
Brownings, in the Bocca di Leone, Mr. Page had his apartment. To Lowell,
Mr. Story wrote of the Brownings:--

"The Brownings and we became great friends in Florence, and, of
course, we could not become friends without liking each other. He,
Emelyn says, is like you. He is of my size, but slighter, with
straight black hair, small eyes, a smooth face, and manner nervous
and rapid. He has great vivacity, but not the least humor; some
sarcasm, considerable critical faculty, and very great frankness
and friendliness of manner and mind. Mrs. Browning will sit buried
up in a large easy-chair listening and talking very quietly and
pleasantly. Very unaffected is she.... I have hundreds of stat