SD2188. Sarianna Browning to Joseph Milsand
Published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 25, 358 (in part).
151, rue de Grenelle.
Thursday Mg [8 July 1858] [1]
My dear Mr Milsand,
I am truly delighted to hear that your mother is steadily progressing, and I trust that by dint of careful nursing she will soon gladden you by her perfect health– Pray tell her how deep an interest we all feel in her welfare. Our travellers arrived here on Tuesday evening; they came by the express train from Marseille, and spent Monday night and Tuesday morning at Dijon– Robert made an affectionate pilgrimage to your house, (twice, I believe) and went all over the town: the people at the Hôtel du Parc, where he lodged, told him you were in Paris. Penini assures me that at Dijon he saw “a church turned into a hay-stack![”]
I found my sister looking very well, and in excellent spirits,—yet she has been seriously ill,—Dr Harding said they must make an effort to save her life; she has rallied, thank God, and seems to me full of vitality– You should have heard Robert’s funny description last night, of the way in which they are beset, waylaid, and overpowered by visitors who come to stare: the day they left, one American walked in coolly (after a fight with Ferdinando) without letter of introduction, or even a card, declaring he had “obeyed an impulse” in coming; after walking for some time up and down before the house, he could resist no longer.
Penini is much grown, and is darker, but the face is just the same,—he has lost none of his grace nor of his infantine simplicity; he really plays beautifully very difficult pieces. Robert is looking well– Oh, what a lamentation when he missed you! Every two minutes he bursts out afresh—can’t get over the disappointment.
<…> [2]
Nothing is yet fixed about our departure, or the place we go to. The weather is miserably cold– I have put on some winter garments. Puck is perfectly well & lively,—but growled most ungraciously at his little master– I’ll send you an Athenæum–
Miss Blackwell sends <…> her brother is arrived <***>
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library, Joseph Milsand Archive.
1. Date provided by reference to the Brownings’ arrival in Paris (from Dijon) on Tuesday, 6 July 1858.
2. The bottom half of two pages has been excised.
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