3760. EBB to Isa Blagden

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 22, 176–177.

[Paris]

[?12] [April 1856] [1]

Dearest Isa, thank you for the books– The scissors were missed of course, this morning. Robert was pleased with you, if you were pleased with him—so it’s even. He never will tolerate any tea after your’s– You have undone my domestic prosperity. But he cant go with you tonight, because its saturday,—otherwise he would certainly, I think, have helped you to lose your paradise.

‘Farewell’– Oh no. Come to us tomorrow evening & help to catch Lytton on the rebound, “when he may come” Robert says– [2]

Your ever affectionate Ba

Harriet is better today.

Address, on integral page: A Madelle / Madelle Blagden.

Publication: B-IB, pp. 104–105.

Manuscript: Fitzwilliam Museum.

1. Conjectural dating based on EBB’s reference to Harriet’s improved health. In the second paragraph of letter 3759, EBB wrote: “Harriet too has been ill with sore throat.”

2. On 15 March Robert Bulwer Lytton was attached to the British Legation at the Hague, as he reported in a letter to John Forster (24 March [1856], ms at Cobbold). Lytton left Paris at the end of that month; perhaps he was back for a short visit, hence EBB’s use of the word “rebound.”

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