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II
Punctually at three o’clock on the following Saturday
I started for the house in North Avenue. I was received
like an old friend and unhesitatingly admitted to the
intimacies of the home. Mutual confidences added a
delightful flavour to the meal. The Baron, who was dis-
satisfied with his position, belonged to a group of mal-
contents which had arisen under the new rule of King
Oscar. Jealous of the great popularity which his late
brother had enjoyed, the new ruler took pains to neglect
all plans fostered by his predecessor. The friends of the
old order, its frank joviality, its toleration and progressive
endeavour, stood aside, therefore, and formed an intel-
lectual opposition without, however, taking any part in
party politics. While we sat, evoking the ghosts of the
past, our hearts were drawn together. All prejudices
nursed in the heart of the commoner against the aristo-
cracy, which since the parliamentary reform of 1865 had
gradually receded more and more into the background,
vanished and gave place to a feeling of sympathy for the
fallen stars.
The Baroness, a native of Finland, was a new-comer in
Sweden, and not sufficiently informed to take part in our
conversation. But as soon as dinner was over she went
to the piano and began to sing, and both the Baron and
I discovered that we possessed an hitherto unsuspected
talent for the duets of Wennerberg.
The hours passed rapidly.
We amused ourselves by casting the parts and reading
16
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