1931: "We were afraid she would
lose her mind."

Ellen had sent out to her sister a porcelain figure of harlequin as a gift which had
joined Columbine on Mama's old bureau; but it was the missing Pierrot, the yearning,
dark-eyed Pierrot that her sister preferred. A Pierrot costume had been carefully
packed and brought to Africa, the same one Tanne had worn to a masquerade ball as
an art student in Copenhagen. For one dinner she had dressed up in the white silken
costume and when she was unexpectedly called to the school on her coffee plantation,
appeared wearing the Pierrot costume, the students taking it all as quite natural,
thinking she was in the proper attire for exams. ¹

During Christmas the figurines had been placed out on the mantle
along with some candles, a reminder of Tivoli and the spirit and charm
of old Copenhagen. ² Mischievously, she convinced one wide-eyed vis-
itor that the vast African plains had their own Tivoli with ferris wheel
and whirling lights. ³ Now on the eve of the new year, Tanne and
Denys decided that to see the harlequin become animated and turn in a
pretty circle would be a curious pleasure, "that the unexpected would

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