The editor offered to publish the novel, in expanded form, if Miss Lagerlöf could have it ready in a short time. Again, she was in despair when a friend, Baroness Aldersparre, arranged financial matters so that the teacher could be given a year’s leave of absence--and “the miracle happened.” When she had completed this initial story, combining Swedish legend, history of the days of the Cavaliers and the pensioners and the old forges, with humor and delicate idealism, she was dissatisfied because it seemed to her “wild and disjointed.” There are passages where the sentences are detached, places where the links in her chain of plot are weak. In structure she has gained skill, as is evident by a comparison of her earlier fiction with such masterworks as the first part of _Jerusalem_ and _The Emperor of Portugallia_. With this improved technic, she has kept her spontaneity, her vital realism and intuition, her spiritual insight. After the publication of one of her novels, the _London Times_ said, with true emphasis upon her unusual combination of qualities: “She is an idealist pure and simple in a world given over to realism, yet such is the perfection of her style and the witchery of her fancy that a generation of realists worship her.” An optimism which defies apparent failures, akin to that of Browning, brings about the redemption of her characters from Gösta Berling, drunken poet-preacher and fascinating vagabond, and flighty Marianne Sinclair to Lilliecrona, the restless violinist, and Glory Golden Sunnycastle, heroine of _The Emperor of Portugallia_. Mrs. Velma Swanston Howard said, in a recent interview with the writer of this book, that Miss Lagerlöf, like her translator, considers this story of Jan, who calls himself “The Emperor of Portugallia,” and his daughter, Glory, as her best work in fiction. Thousands of readers will echo the preference. To the incisive, ruthless realism in this tale she has added sympathy that grips the heart, poetic setting and sagas, and a message that is more impressive because it is dramatic rather than sermonic. The threads of this story are seldom tangled; the pattern stands out with distinctness and artistry.