5555. RB to Sarah Jane Cockayne-Cust
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 31, 224–225.
[London]
Feb. 23. ’65.
My dear Mrs Cust: [1]
You know very well that I only kept away thus long from a determination to do you no harm, nor even give you a fright if I could help it—for I was sure some, at least, of those “younger children” [2] must have missed the measles hitherto—and tho’ doctors now say that the infection is not communicable except directly, from the patient—not as in cases of scarlatina etc., by other people’s clothes—still I was resolute, and expect to be properly commended by you therefore: It really was on your account that I did not go to the Fitz P’s [3] when I was informed you were to dine that day.
I will go to you on the 3rd with great pleasure—I ought to say that nothing could be milder than Robert’s affliction—three days of it, with hardly any preliminary “sickening” and thenceforward the same perfect health as before—it is an ugly thing well over.
I shall also enjoy seeing your husband again—it is indeed vexatious that such distances both of time and space separate us. [4]
Ever affectionately yours,
Robert Browning.
If I call now—on the chance of finding you at home for a quarter of an hour—it will be safe to admit me, I hope. You can’t fancy what cowards some folks are, however.
Text: Ernest Dressel North (book seller, New York), Catalogue of a Choice Collection, November 1906, p. 10.
1. Sara Jane Cockayne-Cust (née Cookson, formerly Streatfeild, 1821–67); see vol. 18, pp. 353–356.
2. From her first marriage, she had five children between 1841–1850. From her second marriage, there were five children born between 1853–1861; a sixth child was born in 1867.
3. The FitzPatricks (see letter 5089, note 2). Mrs. FitzPatrick is listed in RB’s address book of this period (AB-5) at 38 Portman Square.
4. Mrs. Cockayne-Cust and her husband, Henry Francis Cockayne-Cust (1819–84) lived at Ellesmere House, Ellesmere, Shropshire.
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