3798. EBB to Jane Wills-Sandford

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 22, 237.

[Paris]

[12 June 1856] [1]

Dearest Jane

There is a difficulty about Peni’s dinner, & he himself seems half disinclined, I think—partly for the “young lady” [2] perhaps, partly for the “shop”—having a lively recollection of the pleasures of “looting at dresses” through having gone with me yesterday– Dear, I went, & could’nt do half I had to do,—nor a quarter, & came home so extinct, that I went straight to bed without breaking bread for tea or sleeping afterwards. I am exactly like a chair with three legs—of no manner of use out of a lumber-room. But the weather is magnificent, & I suppose I shall be stronger one day—the fourth leg will come again.

How good you are to my Penini– He has very decided tastes, you know, & he likes ‘Jane Sandford’ pure of young ladies, quite plainly– Do remember how short a time we shall be together in Paris!– The days pass–

Your most affectionate EBB–

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.

1. Dated by EBB’s reference to her shopping excursion of “yesterday,” which she also mentioned in letter 3797, and to the time in Paris growing short. The Brownings left Paris for London on 29 June 1856.

2. Unidentified.

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