Browning still urged that he should be the bread-winner; he implored that her money should be made over to her own family, so that no prejudice against his action could be founded on any mercenary feeling; but she remained firm, and would consent only to its transference to her two sisters in the event of his death.

And so the matter rested and was dismissed from the thoughts of both the friends.
Having the great patience of love, Browning would not put the least pressure upon Miss Barrett as to the date of their marriage; if waiting long was for her good, then he would wait.

But matters seemed tending towards the desired end.

In January he begged her to "begin thinking"; before that month had closed it was agreed that they should look forward to the late summer or early autumn as the time of their departure to Italy.

Not until March would Miss Barrett permit Browning to fetter his free will by any engagement; then, to satisfy his urgent desire, she declared that she was willing to chain him, rivet him--"Do you feel how the little fine chain twists round and round you?
do you hear the stroke of the riveting ?" But the links were of a kind to be loosed if need be at a moment's notice.