"I will tell you what I once said in jest ..." she writes, "If a prince of El Dorado should come with a pedigree of lineal descent from some signory in the moon in one hand and a ticket of good behaviour from the nearest Independent chapel in the other!--'Why, even _then_,' said my sister Arabel, 'it would not _do_.' And she was right; we all agreed that she was right." This may be taken as a fairly accurate description of the real state of Mr.Barrett's mind on one subject.

It is illustrative of the very best and breeziest side of Elizabeth Barrett's character that she could be so genuinely humorous over so tragic a condition of the human mind.
Browning's proposals were, of course, as matters stood, of a character to dismay and repel all those who surrounded Elizabeth Barrett.

It was not wholly a matter of the fancies of her father.

The whole of her family, and most probably the majority of her medical advisers, did seriously believe at this time that she was unfit to be moved, to say nothing of being married, and that a life passed between a bed and a sofa, and avoiding too frequent and abrupt transitions even from one to the other, was the only life she could expect on this earth.

Almost alone in holding another opinion and in urging her to a more vigorous view of her condition, stood Browning himself.