iends except that they are your friends, which they will always be
glad to have said and believed. I had a letter from America to-day,
from somebody who, hearing I was in ill health, desired to inform me
that he wouldn't weep for me, were it not for Robert Browning and
Penini! No, don't repeat that. It was kindly meant, and you are
better, my dear Kate, and happier, and we are all thanking God for
Italy. Love us here a little, and believe that we all love and think
of you.

Yours ever affectionately,

E. B. B.

The American appreciation of Mrs. Browning constantly increased, and
editors offered her an hundred dollars each for any poem, long or short,
that might pass through their publications on its way to final destiny.

Theodore Parker had passed that winter in Rome, and Mrs. Browning felt
that he was "high and noble." Early in May he left for Florence, where his
death occurred before the return of the Brownings.

The education of Penini during these months was conducted by an old Abbe,
who was also the instructor of Mr. Story's only daughter, Edith, and the
two often shared their lessons, the lad going to Palazzo Barberini to join
Miss Edith in this pursuit of knowledge. Certain traditions of the
venerable Abbe have drifted down the years, indicating that his breviary
and meditations on ecclesiastical problems did not exclusively occupy his
mind, for the present Marchesa Peruzzi has more than one laughing
reminiscence of this saintly father, who at one time challenged his pupil
to hop around the large table on one foot. The hilarity of the festivity
was not lessened when the Reverendo himself joined in the frolic, his
robes flapping around him, as they all contributed to the merriment. The
Marchesa has many a dainty note written to her by Penini's mother. Once it
is as Pen's amanuensis that she serves, praying the loan of a "'Family
Robinson,' by Mayne Reid," to solace the boy in some indisposition. "I
doubt the connection between Mayne Reid and Robinson," says Mrs. Browning,
"but speak as I am bidden." And another note was to tell "Dearest Edith"
that Pen's papa wanted him for his music, and that there were lessons,
beside; and "thank dear Edith for her goodness," and "another day, with
less obstacles." The intercourse between the Brownings and the Storys was
always so full of mutual comprehension and perfect sympathy and delicate,
lovely recognition on both sides, that no l