The Last Years in Stockholm 149 and that is the common experience in the circles she leaves, because she always searches out the best in people. That is the secret of the delight one feels in her nearness. During all the years which have passed since then, I have always found her the same, and I have been near enough to observe her personal life, which is very simple. It has often touched me deeply to notice how hard worked and lonely she seemed, when she has stopped for a moment's visit—rich and unfor- gettable for me—on her way to the People's Institute, or from luncheon at the house- keeping school. This home lover, this hostess, —so attractive at the little parties she some- times gave where many charming women gathered, a curious mingling of aristocratic relatives with her democratic friends, —would go in all weathers to get her meals in the sim- plest possible way; and that too, in spite of her fine, cultivated taste, and her appreciation of "pure Rhine wine poured in a Venetian glass." And of her own accord, she chose this extremely plain living, for she might have arranged her mode of life, in later years at least, more in keeping with her person. But then she would not have been able, by free lectures and other direct help, to have