on because Mrs. Browning stood on it; Mr. Browning spoke of
the genius of his wife, "losing himself in her glory," said Mrs. Kinney
afterward, while Mrs. Browning lay on the grass and slept. The American
Minister and Mrs. Kinney were favorite guests in Casa Guidi, where they
passed with the Brownings the last evening before the poets set out for
their summer retreat. Mrs. Browning delighted in Mr. Kinney's views of
Italy, and his belief in its progress and its comprehension of liberty.
The youthful Florentine, Penini, was delighted at the thought of the
change, and his devotion to his mother was instanced one night when
Browning playfully refused to give his wife a letter, and Pen, taking the
byplay seriously, fairly smothered her in his clinging embrace,
exclaiming, "Never mind, mine darling Ba!" He had caught up his mother's
pet name, "Ba," and often used it. It was this name to which she refers
in the poem beginning,

"I have a name, a little name,
Uncadenced for the ear."

Beside the Pratolina excursion, Mr. Lytton gave a little reception for
them before the Florentine circle dissolved for the summer, asking a few
friends to meet the Brownings at his villa on Bellosguardo, where they all
sat out on the terrace, and Mrs. Browning made the tea, and they feasted
on nectar and ambrosia in the guise of cream and strawberries.

"Such a view!" said Mrs. Browning of that evening. "Florence dissolving in
the purple of the hills, and the stars looking on." Mrs. Browning's love
for Florence grew stronger with every year. That it was her son's native
city was to her a deeply significant fact, for playfully as they called
him the "young Florentine," there was behind the light jest a profound
recognition of the child's claim to his native country. Still, with all
this response to the enchantment of Florence, they were planning to live
in Paris, after another winter (which they wished to pass in Rome), as the
elder Browning and his daughter Sarianna were now to live in the French
capital, and Robert Browning was enamored of the brilliant, abounding
life, and the art, and splendor of privilege, and opportunity in Paris. "I
think it too probable that I may not be able to bear two successive
winters in the North," said Mrs. Browning, "but in that case it will be
easy to take a flight for a few winter months into Italy, and we shall
regard Paris, where Robert's father and sister are waiting for us, as our
fixed place of re