June came, and with it a proposal from a well-intentioned friend, Miss Bayley, to accompany her to Italy, if, by and by, such a change of abode seemed likely to benefit her health.

Miss Barrett was prepared to accept the offer if it seemed right to Browning, or was ready, if he thought it expedient, to wait for another year.

His voice was given, with such decision as was possible, in favour of their adhering to the plan formed for the end of summer; they both felt the present position hazardous and tormenting; to wear the mask for another year would suffocate them; they were "standing on hot scythes." Accordingly during the summer weeks there is much poring over guide-books to Italy; much weighing of the merits of this place of residence and of that.

Shall it be Sorrento?
Shall it be La Cava?
or Pisa?
or Ravenna?
or, for the matter of that, would not Seven Dials be as happy a choice as any, if only they could live and work side by side?
There is much balancing of the comparative ease and the comparative cost of routes, the final decision being in favour of reaching Italy by way of France.

And as the time draws nearer there is much searching of time-tables, in the art of mastering which Robert Browning seems hardly to have been an expert.