[31 October 1845]. Browning, Elizabeth Barrett to Browning, Robert.

              All today, friday, Miss Mitford has been here! She came at two & went away at seven-and I feel as if I had been making a five-hour speech on the corn laws in Har[r]iet Martineau’s parliament, .. so tired I am. Not that dear Miss Mitford did not talk both for me & herself, .. for that, of course she did. But I was forced to answer once every ten minutes at least-& Flush, my usual companion, does not exact so much-& so I am tired & come to rest myself on this paper- Your name was not once spoken today,-a little from my good fencing: when I saw you at the end of an alley of associations, I pushed the conversation up the next-because I was afraid of questions such as every moment I expected, with a pair of woman’s eyes behind them,-& those are worse than Mr Kenyon’s, when he puts on his spectacles. So your name was not once spoken: not thought of, I do not say-perhaps when I once lost her at Chevy Chase & found her suddenly with Isidore the queen’s hairdresser, my thoughts might have wandered off to you & your unanswered letter while she passed gradually from that to this-I am not sure of the contrary. And Isidore