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A BIOGRAPHY
255
limited, has just begun to struggle for fame. What the result
will be I cannot say. The third, an interesting type, is already
helplessly broken, mentally and physically, but most interesting
for an author to study. The history of these three " explorers "
—in all its simplicity—seems to me much fuller than all we
have written about Karl and Alice. In accordance with your
brother’s wish, I have brought a volume of Runeberg’s poems to
study here ("Hanna," "Nadeschda," etc.), and I am now
reading them. But I do not care for them much. They have all
the same fault as Haydn’s " Creation." The devil is missing, and
without some touch of this high power there is no harmony in
this world.
During this summer I also received a jesting letter
from Sonya, which I quote because it gives a fair
sample of her satirical mood. As she did not shine
in the habit of order in the keeping of her papers and
other matters, she often received from me, in
confidential letters, some sharp admonitions to be careful
not to let such letters lie about. She consequently
wrote me the following note:
Poor Anna Carlotta ! It seems to me that it is getting to
be a regular malady with you to think that your letters are
going to fall into other hands than those for whom they were
meant. The symptoms are getting more and more serious each
time ! I think any one who writes such an unintelligible hand
as yours ought not to be uneasy about this matter. I assure
you that, with the exception of the few people personally
interested in what you write, you would hardly find any one who
would have the patience to decipher your scrawl. As to your
last letter, it was, of course, lost in the post. When I finally did
get it from the Dead Letter Office, I hastened to leave it open
on the table for the benefit of maids and the whole
G-family. They all thought the letter rather well written, and that it
contained rather interesting things.— To-day I intend to call
on Professor Monbau, in order to ask about translations from
the Polish. I shall take your letter with me, and try my best to
lose it in his reception-room. I can do nothing better to make
you a celebrity.
Your devoted
sönya.
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