3565. EBB to Arabella Moulton-Barrett
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 21, 187–188.
[Paris]
Wednesday– [Postmark: 27 June 1855]
My beloved Arabel,
I write in a flash of lightning this time, to beg you not to take rooms till you have consulted us—seeing that we are not married, [1] nor have got our boxes, nor are in travelling order altogether. It’s warm—that’s a comfort. We dont mean to lose time here, but it would be vexatious to pay for two houses at a time (three—considering the one at Florence!) and we may be delayed here a few days beyond the week we intended. Try to look out for rooms for us, clean as well as moderate. Here we have an apartment much more expensive than we could meet, if our old landlord [2] did not let us have it for love’s sake, at the rate of £2–10s a week.
We find Mrs Jameson here—& too many besides. Paris is magnificent. I have just been with her (she came to take me) to see the Fine Art part of the Exhibition; [3] & the different schools of national painting are most interesting– Mil[l]ais is nearly all of England worth looking at– [4]
Oh– I am so afraid of losing the post– Do write to me, dearest. Speak of Sette particularly & then of rooms. Dear Minny can call Wilson Lily, cant she?—and cant we? The question here is whether she must not ‘faire serment’ [5] to bring up the ‘children’ as catholics—which of course, she wont– But I hope the difficulty is to be surmounted–
I write faster than you ever can read even if you read at all.
See how we have got to writing notes!——
Your ever attached Ba–
Penini enters the garden while we look out at him thro’ the window.
American gentleman walking– “Pray sir, where do you come from?”
Peni) “Flom Flolence. I was born at Flolence. I’m Italian! but I tan speat English velly well.”
American) “So, I hear![”]
Peni)– “Yes– I’m Italian still. But papa & mama is English.”
Quite hot it is today–
Address, on integral page: Angleterre– / Miss Barrett / 50. Wimpole Street / London.
Publication: EBB-AB, II, 159–160.
Manuscript: Berg Collection.
1. i.e., Wilson and Ferdinando.
2. Miles Byrne.
3. This was housed in the Palais des Beaux-Arts, which was situated to the west of the Palais de l’Industrie (see letter 3547, note 5) and extended between Avenue Montaigne and Rue Marbeuf. From the Brownings’ apartment at 138 Avenue des Champs Élysées, it would have been a walk of a little less than half a mile.
4. John Everett Millais (1829–96) exhibited three pictures at the Exposition Universelle: “The Order of Release” (1853), “The Return of the Dove to the Ark” (1850–51), and “Ophelia” (1852); see Catalogue of the Works Exhibited in the British Section of the Exhibition (1855).
5. “Take an oath.” Wilson would agree to allow her children to become Roman Catholic if they chose to do so; see the first paragraph in letter 3573.
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