3442. EBB to Maria Rosalie Hamilton

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 20, 252–253.

Casa Guidi.

Tuesday– [ca. July 1854] [1]

My dear Mrs Hamilton

I am quite ashamed to have delayed so long sending back the book,—but I have been held since the morning by a succession of visits. You know there’s a fatality sometimes about visitors, just when one has something especial to do.

Also (besides returning the book & thanking you much for it) I had to make my husband’s excuses to you for this evening, as he finds it impossible to have the pleasure of spending it with you–

Will you pardon us both for saying so late what one would rather not say at all?

Most truly yours

Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.

1. Approximate dating suggested by reference to letter 3405, in which EBB introduces Mrs. Hamilton to Robert Maxwell Hanna, and by the fact of her being listed in the Brownings’ address book of this period (AB-3) at “Villa Capponi Gamberaja,” near Settignano, a picturesque hamlet just northeast of Florence.

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