rfection, but this is far above it.... I was so rejoiced
to hear from you, and think you so wise in staying another month. I sent
the 'Ath.' to 151 R. de G. Kindest love to papa: we can't get news from
England, but the Americans have paid up the rest of the money for
'Aurora:' by the by, in this new book of Ruskin's, the drawing book,[56]
he says '"Aurora Leigh" is the finest poem written in any language this
century.' There is a review of it, which I have not yet got, in the
'Rivista di Firenze' of this month. God bless you. I will write very
soon again. Do you write at once. Ba will add a word. How fortunate
about the books! How is Milsand? Pray always remember my best love to
him.

* * * * *

_E.B. Browning to Miss Browning_

[Same date.]

My dearest Sarianna,--Robert will have told you, I dare say, what a
heavy time we have had here with poor Lytton. It was imprudent of him
to come to Florence at the hottest of the year, and to expose himself
perfectly unacclimated; and the chance by which he was removed here just
in time to be nursed was happy for him and all of us. We have had great
heat in the days even here, of course--no blotting out, even by
mountains, of the Italian sun; but the cool nights extenuate very
much--refresh and heal. Now I do hope the corner is turned of the
illness. Isa Blagden has been devoted, sitting up night after night, and
Robert has sate up four nights that she might not really die at her
post. There is nothing _infectious_ in the fever, so don't be afraid.
Robert is quite well, with good appetite and good spirits, and Peni is
like a rose possessed by a fairy. They both bathe in the river, and
profit (as I am so glad you do). Not that it's a real river, though it
has a name, the _Lima_. A mere mountain stream, which curls itself up
into holes in the rocks to admit of bathing. Then, as far as they have
been able on account of Lytton, they have had riding on donkeys and
mountain ponies, Peni as bold as a lion.

[_The last words of the letter, with the signature, have been cut off_]

* * * * *

_To Mrs. Jameson_

La Villa, Bagni di Lucca: August 22, [1857].

As you bid me write, my dear friend, about Lytton, I write, but I grieve
to say we are still very uneasy about him. For sixteen days he has been
prostrate with this gastric fever, and the disease is not baffled,
though the pulse is not high nor the head at all af