146 Ellen Key all her friends feel that her dutiful life among us has been the subject of the most shameful slander on the part of those who believed thereby to deaden the influence of her words. Ever since 1889, she has been subject to public attacks, vile slander, and abuse, inde- cent anonymous letters, brazen lies about her private life, and insinuations uttered by "cul- tured" ladies in private gatherings. Though all this has been extremely painful to her womanly sensitiveness, she has persisted with her work, though grown so shy of people that, during the last years in Stockholm, she never showed herself in public except when on the lecture platform. One of the many preposter- ous lies spread about her, which went the round even of the Stockholm clergy, and was related as a "fact, " was that she had a grown daughter. How did such a story originate? In this wise: A young girl who did not want to trouble Ellen Key with calls, but who was an eager listener at her lectures, used to write her inquiries touching on matters of intimate importance. And she took the liberty of calHng Ellen Key "little mother," feeling a spiritual daughterly relation to her. Ellen Key left the letter lying open, and some one