Then something happened that stirred the old higher voice in him,--
he fell in love. He had been invited through a woman friend to go
to the home of Baron Wrangel, where his name as an author was
esteemed. He refused the invitation, but the next day, walking in
the city streets with this same woman friend, they encountered the
Baroness Wrangel to whom Strindberg was introduced. The Baroness
asked him once more to come. He promised to do so, and they
separated. As Strindberg's friend went into a shop, he turned to
look down the street; noting the beautiful lines of the
disappearing figure of the Baroness, noting, too, a stray lock of
her golden hair, that had escaped from her veil, and played against
the white ruching at her throat. He gazed after her long, in fact,
until she disappeared in the crowded street. From that moment he
was not a free man. The friendship which followed resulted in the
divorce of the Baroness from her husband and her marriage to
Strindberg, December 30, 1877, when he was twenty-eight years old.
At last Strindberg had someone to love, to take care of, to
worship. This experience of happiness, so strange to him, revived
the creative impulse.
The following year, 1878, "Master Olof" was finally accepted for
publication, and won immediate praise and appreciation. This, to
his mind, belated success, roused in Strindberg a smoldering
resentment, which lack of confidence and authority of position had
heretofore caused him to repress.
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