engagements for high-class concerts gradually ceased, but she still for some years sang in oratorio, and her taste remained faithful to the german school, including wagner. in 1877, she found her vocation. arthur sullivan's 'the lost chord' exactly suited her, and attained unprecedented popularity. she became more and more restricted to simple sentimental ballads, especially those with semi-religious or moralising words, which she declaimed with perfect distinctness and intense fervour. she invested 'caller herrin'' with singular significance. in her later years she favoured tennyson's 'crossing the bar' in behrend's setting.