renzo il Magnifico died, and which was loaned to the Boyles by Lord
Holland. Miss Boyle frequently dropped in on them in the evening, "to
catch us at hot chestnuts and mulled wine," said Mrs. Browning, "and a
good deal of laughing she and Robert make between them." On the terrace of
Casa Guidi orange trees and camellias bloomed, and the salons with their
"rococo chairs, spring sofas, carved bookcases, and satin from Cardinals'
beds," were a picturesque haunt. The ideal and poetic life of Mrs.
Browning, so far from isolating her from the ordinary day and daylight
duties, invested these, instead, with glow and charm and playful repartee;
and, indeed, her never-failing sense of humor transformed any
inconvenience or inadvertence into amusement. She, who is conceded to have
written the finest sonnets since Shakespeare, could also mend a coat for
her husband with a smile and a Greek epigram.

[Illustration: THE GUARDIAN ANGEL.

GUERCINO. CHURCH OF SAN AGOSTINO, FANO, ITALY

"_Guercino drew this angel I saw teach_
(_Alfred, dear friend!_) _that little child to pray._"

The Guardian Angel; A Picture at Fano.]

Joseph Arnould again wrote to their mutual friend, Domett:

"Browning and his wife are still in Florence; both ravished with Italy
and Italian life; so much so, that I think for some years they will
make it the Paradise of their poetical exile. I hold fast to my faith
in 'Paracelsus.' Browning and Carlyle are my two crowning men amongst
the highest English minds of the day. Third comes Alfred Tennyson....
By-the-bye, did you ever happen upon Browning's 'Pauline'? a strange,
wild (in parts singularly magnificent) poet-biography; his own early
life as it presented itself to his own soul viewed poetically; in
fact, psychologically speaking, his 'Sartor Resartus'; it was written
and published three years before 'Paracelsus,' when Shelley was his
God."

A little later Arnould wrote again:

"Browning and his wife are still in Florence, and stay there till the
summer; he is bringing out another edition of his poems (except
'Sordello'), Chapman and Hall being his publishers, Moxon having
declined. He writes always most affectionately, and never forgets kind
inquiries about and kind messages to you."

Allured by resplendent tales of Fano, the Brownings made a trip to that
seaside hamlet, but found it uninhabitable in the late summer heat. A
statue