Our reason for not going to England has not been from caprice, but a cross in money matters.  A ship was to have brought us in something, and brought us in nothing instead, with a discount; the consequence of which is that we are transfixed at Florence, and unable even to ’fly to the mountains’ as a refuge from the summer heat.  It has been a great disappointment to us all, and to our respective families, my poor darling Arabel especially; but we can only be patient, and I take comfort in the obvious fact that my Penini is quite well and almost as rosy as ever in spite of the excessive Florence heat.  One of the worst thoughts I have is about you.  I had longed so to see you this summer, and had calculated with such certainty upon doing so.  I would have gone to England for that single reason if I could, but I can’t; we can’t stir, really.  That we should be able to sit quietly still at Florence and eat our bread and maccaroni is the utmost of our possibilities this summer.

Mrs. Trollope has gone to the Baths of Lucca, and thus I have not seen her.  She will be very interested about you, of course.  How many hang their hearts upon your sickbed, dearest Miss Mitford!  Yes, and their prayers too.

The other day, by an accident, an old number of the ‘Athenaeum’ fell into my hands, and I read for the second time Mr. Chorley’s criticism upon ‘Atherton.’  It is evidently written in a hurried manner, and is quite inadequate as a notice of the book; but, do you know, I am of opinion that if you considered it more closely you would lose your impression of its being depreciatory and cold.  He says that the only fault of the work is its shortness; a rare piece of praise to be given to a work nowadays.  You see, your reputation is at the height; neither he nor another could help you; such books as yours make their own way.  The ‘Athenaeum’ doesn’t give full critiques of Dickens, for instance, and it is arctical in general temperature.  I thought I would say this to you.  Certainly I do know that Mr. Chorley highly regards you in every capacity—­as writer and as woman—­and in the manner in which he named you to me in his last letter there was no chill of sentiment nor recoil of opinion.  So do not admit a doubt of him; he is a sure and affectionate friend, and absolutely high-minded and reliable; of an intact and even chivalrous delicacy.  I say it, lest you might have need of him and be scrupulous (from your late feeling) about making him useful.  It is horrible to doubt of one’s friends; oh, I know that, and would save you from it.

We had a letter from Paris two days ago from one of the noblest and most intellectual men in the country, M. Milsand, a writer in the ’Deux Mondes.’  He complains of a stagnation in the imaginative literature, but adds that he is consoled for everything by the ‘state of politics.’  Your Napoleon is doing you credit, his very enemies must confess.