[1 March 1846]. Browning, Elizabeth Barrett to Browning, Robert.

              Sunday. 

You never could think that I meant any insinuation against you by a word of what was said yesterday, or that I sought or am likely to seek a “security” ..... do you know it was not right of you to use such an expression-indeed no- You were angry with me for just one minute, or you would not have used it-and why? Now what did I say that was wrong or unkind even by construction? If I did say anything, it was three times wrong, & unjust as well as unkind, & wronged my own heart & consciousness of all that you are to me,-more than it could, you. But you began speaking of yourself just as a woman might speak under the same circumstances .. you remember what you said .. & then I, remembering that all the men in the world would laugh such an idea to scorn, said something to that effect .. you know. I once was in company with a man, however, who valued himself very much on his constancy to a woman who was so deeply affected by it that she became his wife at last .. & the whole neighbourhood came out to stare at him on that ground as a sort of monster. And can you guess what the constancy meant? Seven years before, he loved