Lockhart said briefly, "I like Browning; he isn't at all like a damned literary man." He was, according to some, upon occasion, talkative and noisy to a fault; but there are two kinds of men who monopolise conversation.

The first kind are those who like the sound of their own voice; the second are those who do not know what the sound of their own voice is like.

Browning was one of the latter class.

His volubility in speech had the same origin as his voluminousness and obscurity in literature--a kind of headlong humility.

He cannot assuredly have been aware that he talked people down or have wished to do so.