_Men and Women_ was published in the autumn; the beautiful epilogue, addressed to E.B.B., "There they are, my fifty men and women," was written in Dorset Street.

Tennyson's _Maud_ had preceded Browning's volumes by some months.

It bewildered the critics, but his brother poet did justice to Tennyson's passionate sequence of dramatic lyrics.

And though London in mid-autumn had emptied itself Tennyson happened for a few days to be in town.

Two evenings he gave to the Brownings, "dined with us," writes Mrs Browning, "smoked with us, opened his heart to us (and the second bottle of port), and ended by reading _Maud_ through from end to end, and going away at half-past two in the morning." His delightful frankness and simplicity charmed his hostess.