I assure you. How could I complain of a man
who compares me to Isaiah, under any circumstances?...

God bless you! Robert's love with that of

Your ever affectionate and faithful
BA.

* * * * *

_To Mr. Chorley_

Casa Tolomei (Alia Villa), Bagni di Lucca:
August 10, [1853].

My dear Mr. Chorley,--I can't bear that you should intimate by half a
word that you are 'a creature to be eaten'--viz. not to have your share
in friendship and confidence. Now, if you fancy that we, for instance,
don't affectionately regard you, you are very wrong, and I am very right
for feeling inclined to upbraid you. I take the pen from Robert--he
would take it if I did not. We scramble a little for the pen which is to
tell you this--which is to say it again and again, and be dull in the
reiteration, rather than not instruct you properly, as we teach our
child to do--D O G, dog; D O G, dog; D O G, dog. Says Robert, 'What a
slow business!' Yet he's a quick child; and you too must be quick and
comprehending, or we shall take it to heart sadly. Often I think, and we
say to one another, that we belied ourselves to you in England. If you
knew how, at that time, Robert was vexed and worn!--why, he was not the
same even to _me_! He seemed to himself to be slipping out of waistcoats
and friends at once--so worn and teased he was! But then and now believe
that he loved and loves you. Set him down as a friend--as somebody to
'rest on' after all; and don't fancy that because we are away here in
the wilderness (which blossoms as a rose, to one of us at least) we may
not be full of affectionate thoughts and feelings towards you in your
different sort of life in London. So sorry we are--I especially, for I
think I understand the grief especially--about the household troubles
which you hint at and Mr. Kenyon gave us a key to. I quite understand
how a whole life may seem rumpled up and creased--torn for the moment;
only you will live it smooth again, dear Mr. Chorley--take courage. You
have time and strength and good aims, and human beings have been happy
with much less. I understate your advantages on purpose, you see. I
heard you talked of in Florence when Miss Cushman, in the quarter of an
hour she gave us at Casa Guidi, told us of the oath she had in heaven to
bring out your play and make it a triumph. How she praised the play, and
you! Twice I have spoken with her--once on a balcony on the boulevard,
when together w