he plan of "Aurora
Leigh." They read the novel of Dumas, _Diane de Lys_, Browning's verdict
on it being that it was clever, but outrageous as to the morals; and Mrs.
Browning rejoiced greatly in Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's
Cabin," saying of Mrs. Stowe, "No woman ever had such a success, such a
fame." All in all, this winter of 1852-1853 was a very happy one to the
poets, what with their work, their friends, playing with the little
Wiedemann (Penini), the names seeming interchangeably used, and their
reading, which included everything from poetry and romance to German
mysticism, social economics, and French criticism. Mrs. Browning found one
of the best apologies for Louis Napoleon in Lamartine's work on the
Revolution of '48; and she read, with equal interest, that of Louis Blanc
on the same period. In April "Colombe's Birthday" was produced at the
Haymarket Theater in London, the role of the heroine being taken by Miss
Helen Faucit, afterward Lady Martin. The author had no financial interest
in this production, which ran for two weeks, and was spoken of by London
critics as holding the house in fascinated attention, with other
appreciative phrases.

Mrs. Browning watches the drama of Italian politics, and while she
regarded Mazzini as noble, she also felt him to be unwise, a verdict that
time has since justified. "We see a great deal of Frederick Tennyson,"
she writes; "Robert is very fond of him, and so am I. He too writes poems,
and prints them, though not for the public." Their mutual love of music
was a strong bond between Browning and Mr. Tennyson, who had a villa on
the Fiesolean slope, with a large hall in which he was reported to "sit in
the midst of his forty fiddlers."

For the coming summer they had planned a retreat into Giotto's country,
the Casentino, but they finally decided on Bagni di Lucca again, where
they remained from July till October, Mr. Browning writing "In a Balcony"
during this _villeggiatura_. Before leaving Florence they enjoyed an
idyllic day at Pratolina with Mrs. Kinney, the wife of the American
Minister to the Court of Turin, and the mother of Edmund Clarence Stedman.
The royal residences of the old Dukes of Tuscany were numerous, but among
them all, that at Pratolina, so associated with Francesco Primo and Bianca
Capella, is perhaps the most interesting, and here Mrs. Kinney drove her
guests, where they picnicked on a hillside which their hostess called the
Mount of Visi