occasion.... I am very glad Brown is furthering your sonnet-
book--he knows so many bards. Of course if I were you, I
should keep an eye on the mouths even of gift-horses; but
were a creditable stud to be trotted out, of course I should
be willing; as were I one among many, the objection I noted
would not exist. I do not mean for a moment to say that many
very fine sonnets might not be obtained from poets not yet
known or not widely known; but known names would be the
things to parry the difficulty.

Later he wrote:

As you know, I want to contribute to your volume if I can do
so without fear of the consequences hinted at in a former
letter as likely to ensue, so I now enclose a sonnet of my
own. If you are out in March 1881, you may be before my new
edition, but I am getting my stock together. Not a word of
this however, as it mustn't get into gossip paragraphs at
present. _The House of Life_ is now a hundred sonnets--all
lyrics being removed. Besides this series, I have forty-five
sonnets extra. I think, as you are willing, I shall use the
title I sent you--_A Sonnet Sequence_. I fancy the
alternative title would be briefer and therefore better as

<center>

OUR SONNET-MUSE

PROM ELIZABETH TO VICTORIA

</center>

I could not be much concerned about the unwillingness to give me a new
sonnet which Rossetti at first exhibited, for I knew full well that
sooner or later the sonnet would come. Not that I recognised in him the
faintest scintillation of the affectation so common among authors as
to the publication of work. But the fear of any appearance of collusion
between himself and his critics was, as he said, a bugbear that
constantly haunted him. Owing to this, a stranger often stood a better
chance of securing his ready and open co-operation than the most
intimate of friends. I frequently yielded to his desire that in anything
that I might write his name should not be mentioned--too frequently
by far, to my infinite vexation at the time, and now to my deep and
ineradicable regret. The sonnet-book out of which arose much of the
correspondence printed in this chapter, contains in its preface and
notes hardly an allusion to him, and yet he was, in my judgment, out of
all reach and sight, the greatest sonnet-writer of his time. The sonnet
first sent was _Pride of Youth_, but as this formed part of _The House
of Life_