All this was, however, only of gradual development; and for some time her correspondence is limited to Mr. Boyd, who was now living in St. John’s Wood, and Mrs. Martin.  The exact date of the first letter is uncertain, but it seems to belong to a time soon after the arrival of the Barretts in town.

To H.S.  Boyd [74 Gloucester Place, London:  autumn 1835.]

My dear Mr. Boyd,—­As Georgie is going to do what I am afraid I shall not be able to do to-day—­namely, to visit you—­he must take with him a few lines from Porsonia greeting, to say how glad I am to feel myself again at only a short distance from you, and how still gladder I shall be when the same room holds both of us.  Don’t be angry because I have not visited you immediately.  You know—­or you will know, if you consider—­I cannot open the window and fly.

Papa and I were very much obliged to you for the poison—­and are ready to smile upon you whenever you give us the opportunity, as graciously as Socrates did upon his executioner.  How much you will have to say to me about the Greeks, unless you begin first to abuse me about the Romans; and if you begin that, the peroration will be a very pathetic one, in my being turned out of your doors.  Such is my prophecy.

Papa has been telling me of your abusing my stanzas on Mrs. Hemans’s death.  I had a presentiment that you would:  and behold, why I said nothing to you of them.  Of course, I maintain, versus both you and papa, that they are very much to be admired:  as well as everything else proceeding from or belonging to ME.  Upon which principle, I hope you will admire George particularly.

Believe me, dear Mr. Boyd, your affectionate friend,
E.B.  BARRETT.

Arabel’s and my love to Annie.  Won’t she come to see us?

To Mrs. Martin 74 Gloucester Place, Portman Square, London:  Jan.  I, 1836.

My dearest Mrs. Martin,—­I am half willing and half unwilling to write to you when, among such dearer interests and deep anxieties, you may perhaps be scarcely at liberty to attend to what I write.  And yet I will write, if it be only briefly, that you may not think—­if you think of us at all—­that we have changed our hearts with our residence so much as to forget to sympathise with you, dear Mrs. Martin, or to neglect to apprise you ourselves of our movements.  Indeed, a letter to you should have been written among my first letters on arriving in London, only Henrietta (my scape-goat, you will say) said, ’I will write to Mrs. Martin.’  And then after I had waited, and determined to write without waiting any longer, we heard of poor Mrs. Hanford’s affliction and your anxiety, and I have considered day after day whether or not I should intrude upon you; until I find myself—­thus!