BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 31 



his wife by him. The other guests sat in two or three rows of 

 chairs around the room, all faces turned towards the poet. 

 Sven Hedin, a member recently reflected to Parliament, made 

 a long speech in honor of Ibsen, and then it was responded to 

 by the poet, but first each person rose, at a word, from their 

 chairs, approached the table, and took a glass of punch to drink 

 the poet's health; he had also a glass. Friends, guests, and 

 ladies hurried up to touch his glass and drink his health. Other 

 speeches and responses followed, one by the actress in which 

 she read from a slip of paper. A singer from the opera, Miss 

 Oka, sang several Scandinavian songs beautifully. She is from 

 the royal opera. 



"The same spirit of solid intelligence I feel here in distinc- 

 tion to the brilliancy of home intellect. About midnight ladies 

 were leaving, the reception continued, as far as the men 

 were concerned, until late. Sounds of laughter and drinking 

 came to me. 



"The memory of the reception was one of warmth, intelli- 

 gence, solidity, and of the highest culture. 



"Governesses to high families, literary and artistic persons, 

 all belonging to the upper middle class, were represented." 



One day in company with the famous Professor Hildebrandt, 

 whom she thought "the most magnificent intellectual giant" 

 she had as yet met, she visited a private school for girls where 

 she was impressed by "the seriousness with which the girls 

 followed the class, and the marked interest on the part of the 

 teacher." She says: 



"The first class or reading lesson was very instructive. The 

 little girls in turn were reading from 'Robinson Crusoe' in 

 Swedish. The two little pupils on the front benches reminded 

 me of little birds in a nest reaching out their heads for food, 

 with such eagerness did they correct the mistakes in pronun- 

 ciation of the other readers." 



With a letter of introduction from Sven Loven of the Svenska 

 Vetenskaps Akademien, a kindly old man of seventy-nine who 

 had patted her on the back and inquired into her work, she 

 visited the chemical laboratory of the "high technical school" 

 which was under the direction of Professor F. L. Ekman, and 



