They passed through Medstügan one day, and a tiny little woman belonging to the company came to the cottage where DD. [Miss Edith Balfour] and I were staying. We were in the garden, and she saw one of the guitars lying on a bench near us. She picked it up eagerly and brought it to us.

“Play, play! ” she said in Swedish.

I took it up and said to DD., “Let us sing her that little German Volkslied, ‘Verlassen, Verlassen.’”

She didn’t take her eyes off us from beginning to end. She seemed utterly lost to everything else around her. As we finished the tender little melody, to which I sang an alto part, she suddenly buried her face in her hands and burst into tears ! She cried and cried, till we felt quite distressed. After a few moments she took up the guitar and stroked it lovingly. I only knew a few words of Swedish, but I managed to tell her that I would make her a present of one, and she was so delighted that I was more than glad to have had this happy thought.