My Peni has conquered his cold, and when the weather gets milder I shall let him out. Meanwhile he has taken to--what do you suppose? I go into his room at night and find him with a candle regularly settled on the table by him, and he reading, deeply rapt, an Italian translation of 'Monte Cristo.' Pretty well for a lion-cub, isn't it? He is enchanted with this book, lent to him by our padrona; and exclaims every now and then, 'Oh, magnificent, magnificent!' And this morning, at breakfast, he gravely delivered himself to the following effect: 'Dear mama, for the future I mean to read _novels_. I shall read all Dumas's, to begin. And then I shall like to read papa's favourite book, "Madame Bovary."' Heavens, what a lion-cub! Robert and I could only answer by a burst of laughter. It was so funny. That little dot of nine and a half full of such hereditary tendencies. And 'Madame Bovary' in a course of education!... May God bless you, my much-loved Isa, for this and other years beyond also! I shall love you all that way--says the genius of the ring. Your ever loving BA. FOOTNOTES: [46] Ferdinando Romagnoli. He died at Venice, in the Palazzo Rezzonico, January 1893. His widow (who, as the following letters show, continued to be called Wilson in the family) is still living with Mr. R.B. Browning. [47] This refers to a note from Mrs. Browning to Miss Haworth, inquiring whether it was true that she was engaged to be married. [48] The notorious medium, prototype of Mr. Browning's 'Sludge.' He subsequently changed his name to Home. [49] An attempted revision of the poem, subsequently abandoned, as explained in the preface addressed to M. Milsand in 1863. [50] Mr. Browning and the boy had been suffering from sore throats. [51] For the substance of this information I am indebted to Mr. Charles Aldrich, to whom the letter was presented by Mrs. Kinney, and through whose kindness it is here printed. The original now forms part of the Aldrich collection in the Historical Department of Iowa, U.S.A. [52] The husband of Wilson, Mrs. Browning's maid. [53] An odd commentary on this 'poem' may be found in Mrs. Orr's _Life of Robert Browning_, p. 219. [54] See _Aurora Leigh_, p. 276: