[30 July 1846]. Browning, Elizabeth Barrett to Browning, Robert.

              Thursday evening-

Well, then,-it was’nt, after all, so extravagant of me to make the proposition about ‘four months’-? How innocent people may be treated like guilty ones, through no mistake even, of theirs!-

But I hold to my first impression about Mr Kenyon, whatever your second ones may be. I know him entirely, & his views of life, & his terrors of responsibility .. his irresolution, his apprehensiveness. He never would ‘shake his head’ good-naturedly, .. until he could do nothing else. Just in proportion to the affection he bears each of us, would he labour to drive us apart. And by the means you describe!-- And we who can forsee & analyze those means from this distance, would not, either of us, resist the actual process!- Therefore .. do not suffer yourself, ever dearest, to be drawn into any degree of confidence there!-It would end miserably, I know .. see .. am