Correspondence

4208.  RB to Joseph Milsand

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 25, 162–163.

Hôtel de Londres, Rue St Hyacinthe St Honoré.

[ca. 10 July 1858] [1]

Dear Milsand– Sarianna will have told you how we spent twenty-four hours at your Dijon,—mainly because it is yours, beautiful as we found it otherwise,—and how we never dreamed you could be there. I went twice to see your house (what a jewel of a house!)—stood in the doorway, speculated upon the windows:—I am uncertain whether I am glad or sorry that we did not meet then: dear Milsand, I sympathize with you, in your affliction and anxiety, [2] from the bottom of my heart—and am made happy by these better tidings in your letter: your presence must have done great good. I will not put any real feelings into words which can only say in a common place way that I trust God will preserve that precious life long indeed.

I know you will write again– My wife, you know, feels wholly with me,—and I with her,—in all that concerns you. Absent or present, you are our one Milsand–

God bless you–

Yours

RB.

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library, Joseph Milsand Archive.

1. Approximate dating based on RB’s opening sentence. In a letter of 8 July 1858, Sarianna told Milsand of RB’s “affectionate pilgrimage” to Milsand’s house in Dijon (see SD2188).

2. Over his mother’s recent illness.

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