[Postmark: July 15, 1846]
Wednesday Morning.
And is it true of to-day as you said it would be, ever
dearest, that you wish to be with me? Let me have the
comfort, or luxury rather, of the thought of it, before to-
morrow takes you a step farther off.
At dinner my aunt said to Papa.. ‘I have not seen
Ba all day and when I went to her room, to my astonish-
ment a gentleman was sitting there.’ ‘Who was that?’ said
Papa’s eyes to Arabel ‘Mr. Browning called here to-day,’
she answered ‘And Ba bowed her head,’ continued my
aunt, ‘as if she meant to signify to me that I was not to
come in’- ‘ Oh,’ cried Henrietta, ‘that must have been
a mistake of yours. Perhaps she meant just the contrary.’
‘You should have gone in,’ Papa said, ‘and seen the poet.’
Now if she really were to do that the next time! Yet I
did not, you know, make the expelling gesture she thought
she saw. Simply I was startled. As to Saturday we must
try whether we cannot defend the position.. set the
guns against the approaches to right and left.. we must
try.
In speaking too of your visit this morning, Stormy
said to her.. ‘Oh Mr. Browning is a great friend of
Ba’s! He comes here twice a week is it twice a week or
once, Arabel?’
While I write, the Hedleys come and Mrs. Hedley is
beseeching me into seeing Mr. Bevan, whom perhaps I must
see, notwithstanding Flush’s wrongs.
By the way, I made quite clear to Flush that you
left the cakes, and they were very graciously received
indeed.
Dearest, since the last word was written, Mrs. Hedley
came back leading Mr. Bevan, and Papa who had just
entered the room found the door shut upon him.. I was
nervous.. oh, so nervous! and the six feet, and some-
thing more, of Mr. Bevan seemed to me as if they never
would end, so tall the man is. Well and he sate down
by me according to my aunt’s arrangement; and I, who
began to talk a thousand miles from any such subject, with
a good reason for the precaution, found myself thrown
head-foremost into ecclesiastical architecture at the close of
about three minutes how he got there all his saints know
best! It’s his subject.. par excellence. He talks to
Arabella about arches and mullions he can’t talk of any-
thing else, I suspect. And because the Trinity is ex-
pressed in such a form of church-building, the altar at the
east, and the baptistery at the door, .. there’s no other
lawful form of a church, none at all! Not that he has an
opinion! he ‘adopts opinions,’ but would not think for
himself for the world at the risk of ultimate damnation!
Which was the amount of his talk to-day.. and really it
does not strike me as wisdom, now that I set it down so.
Yet the man expressed himself well and has a sensible face
he is a clever third-class man, I think better than the
mass for sense, but commonplace essentially. Only,
inasmuch as ecclesiastical architecture is not my subject,
I may think otherwise of him when I know him otherwise.
I do not dislike him now. And then I am conscious how
you spoil me for common men, dearest! It is scarcely fair
on them.
My aunt (Mrs. Hedley) said when she introduced him:
‘You are to understand this to be a great honour for
she never lets anybody come here except Mr. Kenyon, ..
and a few other gentlemen’… (laughing). Said Papa
‘Only one other gentleman, indeed. Only Mr. Browning,
the poet the man of the pomegranates.’ Was that likely
to calm me, do you think? How late it is I must break
off. To-night I shall write again. Dearest beloved,
I am your own always.