In September of the same year Higginson reports, in a letter to a friend, that his sister-in-law, Barbara, has returned from Italy “with an atmosphere of art and wonder about her; and Brownings and Kembles are familiar as household words in her speech” ; and he adds:
She looks so natural and at home, that it needs all the foreign labels on her trunk to convince us that she has been at Verona and Pisa. She brought home a few notes from her, i.e., E. B. B. . .Almost all of them related to her child and this gives a charm to them. ... The little Browning boy is beautiful, with a broad brow and blue eyes wide apart, fair curling hair and great dignity as well as gaiety; five years old and a great love of drawing already shown. These traits are not just like those of her noble “Philip, my King” which most have supposed to be addressed to her own child — have you seen it?. . . Barbara seems on the whole to have loved her very much and found her more attractive than him; he is very bright and talkative, observing everything and attentive to everybody; she, dark,
