not then to choose, and that I might be right or he might be right,
he was not there to decide; but that he loved me, and should to his last
hour.* * * He preferred, he said, of free and deliberate choice, to be
allowed to sit only an hour a day by my side, to the fulfilment of the
brightest dream which should exclude me, in any possible world."

What Robert Browning wanted so much, it was a foregone conclusion that
he would have; and Miss Barrett was at last brought to consent to an
engagement. But the difficulties were just begun. Mr. Barrett, adored as
he was by his daughter, was more than a little tyrannical, especially
with his favorite daughter. His family all well knew that he would never
under any circumstances be brought to consent to the marriage of any of
his children; and he had, moreover, in the case of Elizabeth, the
appearance of reason on his side, in that she was, in the opinion of her
family and of most of her medical advisers, a hopeless invalid, unfit to
be moved. "A life passed between a bed and a sofa, and avoiding too
frequent and abrupt transitions even from one to the other, was the only
life she could expect on this earth." Browning believed otherwise, and
events showed that he was right.

In the autumn of 1845, the doctors advised that Miss Barrett be taken to
Italy, declaring, in fact, that her life depended upon it. Some of her
brothers or sisters could easily have accompanied her; there was no lack
of money, and the journey was actually planned. For no apparent reason,
however, Mr. Barrett refused his consent--said that his daughter should
not leave his house. In vain the family argued; in vain a generous
friend offered to accompany Miss Barrett, paying all expenses. He was
brutally firm. Much hurt by this selfishness and disregard for her life,
Miss Barrett promised Browning that if she lived through the winter and
were no worse in the following year, she would marry him without her
father's consent, for which they knew it was useless to ask.
Accordingly, on September 12, 1846, she walked out of her father's
house, accompanied only by her maid, was married and returned home. One
week later she joined her husband, and they set out for Italy, their
future home. Mr. Barrett never forgave his daughter, and his unrelenting
anger was a deep sorrow to her, in the midst of her great life
happiness.

The Brownings went first to Pisa, and from there to Florence, which they
afterward regarded as th