I remember one extremely happy, the _refrain_ of which still runs in my head.

It is written on the newly-adopted Italian tricolour flag.

After characterising each colour separately in a couplet, he ends:-- "_E il rosso, il bianco, e il verde, E un terno che si giuoca, e non si perde_." The phrase is borrowed from the language of the lottery.

"And the red, and the white, and the green, are a threefold combination" [I am obliged to be horribly prosaic in order to make the allusion intelligible to non-Italian ears!] "on which we may play and be sure not to lose!" I am tempted to give here another of Mrs.Browning's letters to my first wife, partly by the persuasion that any letter of hers must be a matter of interest to a very large portion of English readers, and partly for the sake of the generously appreciative criticism of one of my brother's books, which I also always considered to be one of his best.

I must add that Mrs.Browning's one bit of censure coincides as perfectly with my own judgment.