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BIOGRAPHY. 49
a beautiful suite of apartments in the Blasseholm Square,
in Stockholm, to which we moved in 1822. With mutual
pleasure we saw our near and dear relatives again; but
most of our acquaintances looked upon us with rather
envious eyes, — scrutinized our fashionable and elegant
toilet, and thought that we were giving ourselves grand
airs. After all, perhaps, they were not far wrong; we
were proud of our talents, and considered ourselves rather
distinguished. In those days it was a rare occurrence that
a Swedish lady had travelled in foreign countries, — and
we had been travelling so far and seen so much of the
world !
Fredrika, who did not like dancing as much I did, often
begged to be allowed to stay at home when we were invited
out to balls; therefore, Hedda went instead. Fredrika
now began painting portraits in miniature under Professor
W. , and it was soon evident that she had great natural
talent for catching the likeness, but always beautified, and
with wonderful expression. There was a great deal of
genius in her manner of painting portraits. Under the
sense of the heavy atmosphere in our home, she found a
great conifort in her painting, and therefore spent many
hours every day at her easel. My father was pleased with
Fredrika’s beautiful works, and admired them exceedingly.
Fredrika had not much of a voice, but she sang duets with
me, and the charming “ Nocturnes ” of Signor Blangini, my
singing-master in Paris, for the sake of amusing my father.
His temper became every year more gloomy and irritable.
His return to Sweden and the cold climate had an unfavor-
able influence upon his temper and his health.
In the summer of 1824 my mother went to Paris with
my sister Agatha, in order to place her in an Orthopedic
Institution. She had, unfortunately, of late become very
crooked, and in those days there was no remedy in Sweden
for this disease. Hedda and Claes accompanied them, in
order to assist my mother on the journey. After a fort-
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