THE A ME RICA N-SCA N DIN A VIA N REV IE IV 
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piness to them both and was the beginning of a real friendship. 
Mingled with the many attacks of which her book was the object, 
*vere also pleas in its defense. Among these was one from Grundtvig, 
in whose house she was a frequent and welcome guest. She also made 
this year the acquaintance of the poet Goldschmidt, who remained ever 
her devoted friend. 
In the midst of all the commotion her book aroused—with which 
her family were but ill pleased—her father died, in 1851. The follow¬ 
ing spring Madame Grundtvig offered Mathilde Fibiger her place, 
Ronnebeeksholm, near the Grundtvig home, to live in. There she 
spent the whole summer, for the first time alone and at rest, later 
staying with the Grundtvigs. She was asked to speak at a festival 
in Ronnebgek; but when it proved to be greatly against the wishes of 
her brothers and sisters, she gave it up. In the autumn Mathilde 
Fibiger moved to Copenhagen and rented an attic room, where she 
lived in the utmost content. During this time she wrote two other 
works in defense of the cause which lay so near her heart; Sketches 
from Heal Life and Minona. Neither of these could compare with 
Clara Raphael , and they won for her no triumph. 
After having lived for a time with her sister Ilia, she took a posi¬ 
tion as governess in a clergyman’s family. She remained here one 
year; but again her feeling of independence was interfered with. She 
must be herself; so she took up her dwelling, in spite of her brothers’ 
protests, in the village of Olgod for the whole winter. She sewed 
for the farmers, spent her Sundays at the clergyman’s, and maintained 
her independence. Yet she also gave up this manner of living; ever 
a restless soul, she still sought for that place in life best adapted to 
her nature and temperament. 
After she came to Copenhagen she was stricken with typhus, and 
was seriously ill for a long time. Carl Emil Fenger, later a cabinet 
minister, the head physician at Frederik’s hospital, was her doctor, 
and remained, after her health was restored, her intimate and faithful 
friend. He often visited her in her little room; and one day he brought 
Hans Christian Andersen to her, with his latest fairytale. She found 
the tale “lovely,” and begged its author to come again. M. A. Gold¬ 
schmidt’s visits and their long spiritual talks were also a great joy to 
her. She desired them, rejoiced in them, and gained profit from them. 
“I am so glad I know him,” she wrote her sister Anna, “because every 
time we talk together I feel more free than when I am alone—I 
believe that he understands me better than I understand myself.” 
Once again—in 1862—Mathilde Fibiger took the position of 
governess, this time in Jylland. But then Fenger, with whom she 
corresponded regularly, suggested that she should learn how to use 
the telegraph. This proposal excited her, as only within a few years 
had the invention been in use in Denmark, and hitherto it had been 
