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

              Private

Wednesday, 7. a.m.

My own Ba, I received your note on my return from Talfourd’s last night: I am anxious to get the first post for this, so can only use the bare words,-if those. After dinner, Forster put a question to our Host about the amount of the Subscription; and in a minute the paper-bequest was introduced: Talfd had received a letter from Miss Mitford, enclosing one from you (or a copy of one .. I did not hear)-whereat he pronounced so emphatically upon H’s conduct in making you,-“who could never have known the nature of the transaction nor the very serious consequences it involved”-the depositary of his pictures &c on such occasions, .. the words, “H. it seems, has been in the habit of using Miss B’s house &c” (or to that effect) had so offensive an implication,-that I felt obliged to say simply, you had never seen Haydon and were altogether amazed and distressed at his desire,-and that, for the other matter, what he chose to send, you could not, I supposed, bring yourself to refuse admittance to the house. I gave no particular account of my own means of knowledge, nor spoke further than to remove the impression