Mrs Browning once more wrote to him, but the letter received no answer.

"Mama," said little Pen earnestly, "if you've been very, very naughty I advise you to go into the room and say,'_Papa, I'll be dood_.'" But the situation, as Mrs Browning sadly confesses, was hopeless.

Some companionship with her sister Arabel and her brothers was gained by a swift departure from London in August for Ventnor whither the Wimpole Street household, leaving its master behind, had been banished, and there "a happy sorrowful two weeks" were spent.

At Cowes a grief awaited Browning and his wife, for they found Kenyon kind as ever but grievously broken in health and depressed in spirits.

A short visit to Mrs Browning's married sister at Taunton closed the summer and autumn in England.