Far better therefore to withdraw quietly from the house, and trust to the effect of a subsequent pleading in all earnestness for reconciliation.
[Illustration: Yours very truly, Robert Browning.

_From an engraving by_ J.G.

ARMYTAGE.] As summer passed into early autumn the sense of dangers and difficulties accumulating grew acute.

"The ground," wrote Browning, "is crumbling from beneath our feet with its chances and opportunities." In one of the early days of August a thunder-storm with torrents of rain detained him for longer than usual at Wimpole Street; the lightning was the lesser terror of the day, for in the evening entered Mr Barrett to his daughter with disagreeable questioning, and presently came the words--accompanied by a gaze of stern displeasure--"It appears that _that man_ has spent the whole day with you." The louring cloud passed, but it was felt that visits to be prudent must be rare; for the first time a week went by without a meeting.

Early in September George Barrett, a kindly brother distinguished by his constant air of dignity and importance, was commissioned to hire a country house for the family at Dover or Reigate or Tunbridge, while paperers and painters were to busy themselves at Wimpole Street.