under all the quietness, and perhaps by means of it, you are aware

of an intense burning soul. She kissed me again when we went away. . . .'
==

==
`April 7. -- George Sand we came to know a great deal more of.

I think Robert saw her six times. Once he met her near the Tuileries,
offered her his arm and walked with her the whole length of the gardens.

She was not on that occasion looking as well as usual,
being a little too much "endimanchee" in terrestrial lavenders

and super-celestial blues -- not, in fact, dressed with the remarkable taste
which he has seen in her at other times. Her usual costume

is both pretty and quiet, and the fashionablewaistcoat and jacket
(which are aspectable (?) in all the "Ladies' Companions" of the day)

make the only approach to masculine wearings to be observed in her.
`She has great nicety and refinement in her personal ways, I think --

and the cigarette is really a feminineweapon if properly understood.
`Ah! but I didn't see her smoke. I was unfortunate. I could only

go with Robert three times to her house, and once she was out.
He was really very good and kind to let me go at all after he found

the sort of society rampant around her. He didn't like it extremely,
but being the prince of husbands, he was lenient to my desires,

and yielded the point. She seems to live in the abomination of desolation,
as far as regards society -- crowds of ill-bred men who adore her,

`a genoux bas', betwixt a puff of smoke and an ejection of saliva --
society of the ragged red, diluted with the low theatrical.

She herself so different, so apart, so alone in her melancholy disdain.
I was deeply interested in that poor woman. I felt a profound

compassion for her. I did not mind much even the Greek, in Greek costume,
who `tutoyed' her, and kissed her I believe, so Robert said --

or the other vulgar man of the theatre, who went down on his knees
and called her "sublime". "Caprice d'amitie," said she

with her quiet, gentle scorn. A noble woman under the mud, be certain.
_I_ would kneel down to her, too, if she would leave it all, throw it off,

and be herself as God made her. But she would not care for my kneeling --
she does not care for me. Perhaps she doesn't care much for anybody

by this time, who knows? She wrote one or two or three kind notes to me,
and promised to `venir m'embrasser' before she left Paris,

but she did not come. We both tried hard to please her,
and she told a friend of ours that she "liked us". Only we always felt

that we couldn't penetrate -- couldn't really TOUCH her -- it was all vain.
`Alfred de Musset was to have been at M. Buloz' where Robert was a week ago,

on purpose to meet him, but he was prevented in some way.
His brother, Paul de Musset, a very different person, was there instead,

but we hope to have Alfred on another occasion. Do you know his poems?
He is not capable of large grasps, but he has poet's life and blood in him,

I assure you. . . . We are expecting a visit from Lamartine,
who does a great deal of honour to both of us in the way of appreciation,

and was kind enough to propose to come. I will tell you all about it.'
==

Mr. Browning fully shared his wife's impression of a want of frank cordiality
on George Sand's part; and was especially struck by it in reference

to himself, with whom it seemed more natural that she should feel at ease.
He could only imagine that his studiedcourtesy towards her was felt by her

as a rebuke to the latitude which she granted to other men.
Another eminent French writer whom he much wished to know was Victor Hugo,

and I am told that for years he carried about him a letter of introduction
from Lord Houghton, always hoping for an opportunity of presenting it.

The hope was not fulfilled, though, in 1866, Mr. Browning crossed
to Saint Malo by the Channel Islands and spent three days in Jersey.

Chapter 11
1852-1855

M. Joseph Milsand -- His close Friendship with Mr. Browning;
Mrs. Browning's Impression of him -- New Edition of Mr. Browning's Poems --

`Christmas Eve and Easter Day' -- `Essay' on Shelley -- Summer in London --
Dante Gabriel Rossetti -- Florence; secluded Life --

Letters from Mr. and Mrs. Browning -- `Colombe's Birthday' --
Baths of Lucca -- Mrs. Browning's Letters -- Winter in Rome --

Mr. and Mrs. Story -- Mrs. Sartoris -- Mrs. Fanny Kemble --
Summer in London -- Tennyson -- Ruskin.

It was during this winter in Paris that Mr. Browning became acquainted
with M. Joseph Milsand, the second Frenchman with whom

he was to be united by ties of deep friendship and affection.
M. Milsand was at that time, and for long afterwards,

a frequentcontributor to the `Revue des Deux Mondes';
his range of subjects being enlarged by his, for a Frenchman,

exceptional knowledge of English life, language, and literature. He wrote
an article on Quakerism, which was much approved by Mr. William Forster,

and a little volume on Ruskin called `L'Esthetique Anglaise',
which was published in the `Bibliotheque de Philosophie Contemporaine'.*

Shortly before the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Browning in Paris,
he had accidentally seen an extract from `Paracelsus'.

This struck him so much that he procured the two volumes of the works
and `Christmas Eve', and discussed the whole in the `Revue'

as the second part of an essay entitled `La Poesie Anglaise depuis Byron'.
Mr. Browning saw the article, and was naturally touched

at finding his poems the object of serious study in a foreign country,
while still so little regarded in his own. It was no less natural

that this should lead to a friendship which, the opening once given,
would have grown up unassisted, at least on Mr. Browning's side;

for M. Milsand united the qualities of a criticalintellect with a tenderness,
a loyalty, and a simplicity of nature seldom found in combination with them.

--
* He published also an admirable little work on the requirements

of secondary education in France, equallyapplicable in many respects
to any country and to any time.

--
The introduction was brought about by the daughter of William Browning,

Mrs. Jebb-Dyke, or more directly by Mr. and Mrs. Fraser Corkran,
who were among the earliest friends of the Browning family in Paris.

M. Milsand was soon an `habitue' of Mr. Browning's house,
as somewhat later of that of his father and sister; and when,

many years afterwards, Miss Browning had taken up her abode in England,
he spent some weeks of the early summer in Warwick Crescent,

whenever his home duties or personal occupations allowed him to do so.
Several times also the poet and his sister joined him at Saint-Aubin,

the seaside village in Normandy which was his special resort,
and where they enjoyed the good offices of Madame Milsand, a home-staying,

genuine French wife and mother, well acquainted with the resources
of its very primitive life. M. Milsand died, in 1886, of apoplexy,

the consequence, I believe, of heart-disease brought on
by excessive cold-bathing. The first reprint of `Sordello', in 1863,

had been, as is well known, dedicated to him. The `Parleyings',
published within a year of his death, were inscribed to his memory.

Mr. Browning's affection for him finds utterance in a few strong words
which I shall have occasion to quote. An undated fragmentconcerning him

from Mrs. Browning to her sister-in-law, points to a later date
than the present, but may as well be inserted here.

==
`. . . I quite love M. Milsand for being interested in Penini.

What a perfect creature he is, to be sure! He always stands in the top place
among our gods -- Give him my cordial regards, always, mind. . . .

He wants, I think -- the only want of that noble nature --
the sense of spiritual relation; and also he puts under his feet too much

the worth of impulse and passion, in considering the powers of human nature.
For the rest, I don't know such a man. He has intellectual conscience --

or say -- the conscience of the intellect, in a higher degree than I ever saw
in any man of any country -- and this is no less Robert's belief than mine.

When we hear the brilliant talkers and noisy thinkers
here and there and everywhere, we go back to Milsand with a real reverence.

Also, I never shall forget his delicacy to me personally,
nor his tenderness of heart about my child. . . .'

==
The criticism was inevitable from the point of view of Mrs. Browning's

nature and experience; but I think she would have revoked part of it
if she had known M. Milsand in later years. He would never

have agreed with her as to the authority of `impulse and passion',
but I am sure he did not underrate their importance as factors in human life.