4189. EBB to Sophia Eckley
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 25, 128.
Casa Guidi.
Friday– six oclock– [11 June 1858] [1]
So these are words which you will read my dearest Sophie, not on our Arno-side, but farther off—& not to hear when we shall meet, as usual .. though still & ever to hear that I love you, & that I love your love, yes, and that when you are gone & while you are reading this I shall be missing a dear loving presence & feeling Florence sad through having lost you– May God bless & love you, & light up your eyes with all sorts of joy till they meet mine again–
Here is a hair-holder .. did you not ask once for hair? and I am so bold, so bold, & so vain, so vain, that I will ask you to let it hang among your more precious memorials at the end of that chain–. Will you?– Robert gives you the hair, (because it is his—) and I give you the locket, [2] which is only good for this .. that it is insignificant enough to hide itself–
And I love you, dear– You have done me real good with your sweet pure harmonious spirit, and by the grateful sense of its tenderness towards me. You exaggerate what I am, and what I can do for you– But perhaps you much understate the thankful true affection with which I regard you–
Dearest Sophie, I will not say goodbye– Goodbye will be over when you read this .. which because it is to come, I write with such pain–
Your ever loving
Ba–
Docket, in recipient’s hand, in accompanying album: Parting word when we left for Lucca Summer 1858.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Berg Collection.
1. Dated by EBB’s reference to Sophie Eckley’s departure for Bagni di Lucca. In SD2171 Sophia Hawthorne indicates that the Eckleys left Florence on 10 June, a Thursday, though she may have been mistaken. Considering the last paragraph of this letter, it is clear that EBB wrote it before Mrs. Eckley left town. Further, in the following letter, dated 12 June, EBB tells Arabella that Mrs. Eckley “has just gone to the Baths of Lucca.”
2. In his account book of this period, RB recorded the purchase of the locket on 11 June for 3 francesconi, 5 pauls (see Appendix IV). The present whereabouts of the locket and EBB’s lock of hair is unknown.
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