SD2262. Ada Shepard to Henry Clay Badger

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 26, 357 (in part).

Rome

Sunday Night. May 1st 1859.

To-day has been made memorable by the visit of Charles Sumner. He has been in Rome for a week or more, and is staying with the Storys. He came and made a long call, this morning, and I was very glad to have an opportunity of seeing him so long and hearing him talk. He is a splendid looking man, and has a great deal of vigor left, notwithstanding the severe injury which he received and the martyrdom which he has lately suffered at the hands of his physicians. He is much better in health than he has been, but is yet unable to walk much.

After he left I went to call on Mrs. Browning, and found him there. Mrs. Browning was very affectionate. She is really an angelic person. I wish (oh! how I wish!) that you could see her and Mr. Browning. …

May 4th, Wednesday.

It is the evening of my twenty-fourth birth-day, and a time when I can but look backward upon my past and forward toward my future with earnest, questioning heart. …

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Concord Free Public Library.

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