’Insufficiency,’[142] which likewise belong to this period and describe its hesitations, its sorrows and its overwhelming joys.  In the difficult circumstances under which they were placed, the conduct of both was without reproach.  Mr. Browning knew that he was asking to be allowed to take charge of an invalid’s life—­believed indeed that she was even worse than was really the case, and that she was hopelessly incapacitated from ever standing on her feet—­but was sure enough of his love to regard that as no obstacle.  Miss Barrett, for her part, shrank from burdening the life of the man she loved with a responsibility so trying and perhaps so painful, and refused his unchanging devotion for his sake, not for her own.

[Footnote 142:  Poetical Works, iv. 20-32.]

The situation was complicated by the character of Mr. Barrett, and by the certainty—­for such it was to his daughter—­that he would refuse to entertain the idea of her marriage, or, indeed, that of any of his children.  The truth of this view was absolutely vindicated not only in the case of Elizabeth, but also in those of two others of the family in later years.  The reasons for his feeling it is probable he could not have explained to himself.  He was fond of his family after his own fashion—­proud, too, of his daughter’s genius; but he could not, it would seem, regard them in any other light than as belonging to himself.  The wish to leave his roof and to enter into new relations was looked upon as unfilial treachery; and no argument or persuasion could shake him from his fixed idea.  So long as this disposition could be regarded as the result of a devoted love of his children, it could be accepted with respect, if not with full acquiescence; but circumstances brought the proof that this was not the case, and thereby ultimately paved the way to Elizabeth’s marriage.

These circumstances are stated in several of her letters, and alluded to in several others, but it may help to the understanding of them if a brief summary be given here.  In the autumn of 1845, as described above, Miss Barrett’s doctors advised her to winter abroad.  The advice was strongly pressed, as offering a good prospect of a real improvement of health, and as the only way of avoiding the annual relapse brought on by the English winter.  One or more of her brothers could have gone with her, and she was willing and able to try the experiment; but in face of this express medical testimony, Mr. Barrett interposed a refusal.  This indifference to her health naturally wounded Miss Barrett very deeply; but it also gave her the right of taking her fate into her own hands.  Convinced at last that no refusal on her part could alter Mr. Browning’s devotion to her, and that marriage with him, so far from being an increase of risk to her health, offered the only means by which she might hope for an improvement in it, she gave him the conditional promise that if she came safely through the then impending winter, she would consent to a definite engagement.