As for Venice,you can't get even a "Times",much less an "Athenaeum".
We comfort ourselves by taking a box at the opera (a whole box on the grand tier,mind)for two shillings and eightpence,English.Also,every evening at half-past eight,Robert and I are sitting under the moon in the great piazza of St.Mark,taking excellent coffee and reading the French papers.'
If it were possible to draw more largely on Mrs.Browning's correspondence for this year,it would certainly supply the record of her intimacy,and that of her husband,with Margaret Fuller Ossoli.A warm attachment sprang up between them during that lady's residence in Florence.
Its last evenings were all spent at their house;and,soon after she had bidden them farewell,she availed herself of a two days'delay in the departure of the ship to return from Leghorn and be with them one evening more.She had what seemed a prophetic dread of the voyage to America,though she attached no superstitious importance to the prediction once made to her husband that he would be drowned;and learned when it was too late to change her plans that her presence there was,after all,unnecessary.Mr.Browning was deeply affected by the news of her death by shipwreck,which took place on July 16,1850;and wrote an account of his acquaintance with her,for publication by her friends.This also,unfortunately,was lost.
Her son was of the same age as his,little more than a year old;but she left a token of the friendship which might some day have united them,in a small Bible inscribed to the baby Robert,'In memory of Angelo Ossoli.'
The intended journey to England was delayed for Mr.Browning by the painful associations connected with his mother's death;but in the summer of 1851he found courage to go there:and then,as on each succeeding visit paid to London with his wife,he commemorated his marriage in a manner all his own.He went to the church in which it had been solemnized,and kissed the paving-stones in front of the door.It needed all this love to comfort Mrs.Browning in the estrangement from her father which was henceforth to be accepted as final.He had held no communication with her since her marriage,and she knew that it was not forgiven;but she had cherished a hope that he would so far relent towards her as to kiss her child,even if he would not see her.Her prayer to this effect remained,however,unanswered.
In the autumn they proceeded to Paris;whence Mrs.Browning wrote,October 22and November 12.
138,Avenue des Champs Elysees.
'...It was a long time before we could settle ourselves in a private apartment....At last we came off to these Champs Elysees,to a very pleasant apartment,the window looking over a large terrace (almost large enough to serve the purpose of a garden)to the great drive and promenade of the Parisians when they come out of the streets to sun and shade and show themselves off among the trees.
A pretty little dining-room,a writing and dressing-room for Robert beside it,a drawing-room beyond that,with two excellent bedrooms,and third bedroom for a "femme de menage",kitchen,&c....
So this answers all requirements,and the sun suns us loyally as in duty bound considering the southern aspect,and we are glad to find ourselves settled for six months.We have had lovely weather,and have seen a fire only yesterday for the first time since we left England....
We have seen nothing in Paris,except the shell of it.Yet,two evenings ago we hazarded going to a reception at Lady Elgin's,in the Faubourg St.Germain,and saw some French,but nobody of distinction.
'It is a good house,I believe,and she has an earnest face which must mean something.We were invited to go every Monday between eight and twelve.We go on Friday to Madame Mohl's,where we are to have some of the "celebrites"....
Carlyle,for instance,I liked infinitely more in his personality than I expected to like him,and I saw a great deal of him,for he travelled with us to Paris,and spent several evenings with us,we three together.He is one of the most interesting men I could imagine,even deeply interesting to me;and you come to understand perfectly when you know him,that his bitterness is only melancholy,and his scorn,sensibility.Highly picturesque,too,he is in conversation;the talk of writing men is very seldom so good.
'And,do you know,I was much taken,in London,with a young authoress,Geraldine Jewsbury.You have read her books....She herself is quiet and simple,and drew my heart out of me a good deal.
I felt inclined to love her in our half-hour's intercourse....'
138,Avenue des Champs Elysees:(Nov.12).
'...Robert's father and sister have been paying us a visit during the last three weeks.They are very affectionate to me,and I love them for his sake and their own,and am very sorry at the thought of losing them,as we are on the point of doing.
We hope,however,to establish them in Paris,if we can stay,and if no other obstacle should arise before the spring,when they must leave Hatcham.Little Wiedemann 'draws',as you may suppose....he is adored by his grandfather,and then,Robert!They are an affectionate family,and not easy when removed one from another....'
On their journey from London to Paris,Mr.and Mrs.Browning had been joined by Carlyle;and it afterwards struck Mr.Browning as strange that,in the 'Life'of Carlyle,their companionship on this occasion should be spoken of as the result of a chance meeting.Carlyle not only went to Paris with the Brownings,but had begged permission to do so;and Mrs.Browning had hesitated to grant this because she was afraid her little boy would be tiresome to him.Her fear,however,proved mistaken.
The child's prattle amused the philosopher,and led him on one occasion to say:'Why,sir,you have as many aspirations as Napoleon!'
