[20-23 August 1845]. Browning, Elizabeth Barrett to Browning, Robert.

              Wednesday. 

But what have I done that you should ask what have you done? I have not brought any accusation, have I .. no, nor thought any, I am sure-& it was only the ‘kindness & considerateness’-argument that was irresistible as a thing to be retorted, when your thanks came so naturally & just at the corner of an application. And then, you know, it is gravely true, seriously true, sadly true, that I am always expecting to hear or to see how tired you are at last of me!-sooner or later, you know!-- But I did not mean any seriousness in that letter. No, nor did I mean .. (to pass to another question ..) to provoke you to the

 

“Mister Hayley .. so are you” ..

reply complimentary. All I observed concerning yourself, was the combination-which not an idiom in chivalry could treat grammatically as a thing common to me & you, inasmuch as everyone who has known me for half a day, may know that, if there is anything peculiar