5610. RB to Moncure Daniel Conway

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 31, 264.

[London]

[ca. 19 June 1865] [1]

Dear Mr Conway,

I thank good, kind Mr Flower from my heart—but I could no more go to him, as he proposes, than to Boston, about the same day, as another friend suggests: my very soul is tired with the mill-round I tread, and I never step many feet out of it. To be sure, I went to Oxford last week, but that was a necessity.

And you—the days and, indeed, weeks go by, and I keep—if not breaking, exactly,—yet unperforming my promise to get an evening with you: forgive me for the truth’s sake,—that I always want much to do it, and will, some time ere long.

With all regard to Mrs Conway

Yours ever cordially

Robert Browning.

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Columbia University.

1. Approximate date based on the stationery, bearing a watermark of 1864, which RB used from March 1865 to February 1866, and on his reference to visiting “Oxford last week.” Also, this would appear to be a reply to a follow-up letter to letter 5609.

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