SD2177. Ada Shepard to Henry Clay Badger

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 25, 356 (in part).

[Florence]

Tuesday Evening, June 22nd. [1858]

I have written evening at the top of this page, but as I write this line the clock strikes twelve. We have been to a party where we met Mr. Browning and his little angel Penny. Mrs. B. was not able to go. She never goes out in the evening now. Penny has a great genius for music, which he has cultivated a great deal, although he is but nine years old. He played to us charmingly on the piano. I had a little talk with him, early in the evening, and, just before we came away, with his father. …

Wednesday, 23rd.

… I wish I could tell you what a lovely angelic little being Mrs. Browning’s Penny is, and how charming Mr. Browning was last evening. He invited us all to his house next Friday evening. I hope Mr. H. will be able to go. He could not go, last evening, for he was quite ill all day, and to-day he is scarcely better. … [Editors’ note: text from transcript at Yale.]

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Concord Free Public Library.

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