calls "my dear Klengel," and of whom he says that he
esteems him very highly, and loves him as if he had known him from his
earliest youth. "I like to converse with him, for from him something is
to be learned." The great contrapuntist seems to have reciprocated this
affection, at any rate he took a great interest in his young friend,
wished to see the scores of his concertos, went without Chopin's
knowledge to Morlacchi and to the intendant of the theatre to try if
a concert could not be arranged within four days, told him that his
playing reminded him of Field's, that his touch was of a peculiar kind,
and that he had not expected to find him such a virtuoso. Although
Chopin replied, when Klengel advised him to give a concert, that his
stay in Dresden was too short to admit of his doing so, and thought
himself that he could earn there neither much fame nor much money, he
nevertheless was not a little pleased that this excellent artist had
taken some trouble in attempting to smooth the way for a concert, and to
hear from him that this had been done not for Chopin's but for Dresden's
sake; our friend, be it noted, was by no means callous to flattery.
Klengel took him also to a soiree at the house of Madame Niesiolawska,
a Polish lady, and at supper proposed his health, which was drunk in
champagne.

There is a passage in one of Chopin's letters which I must quote; it
tells us something of his artistic taste outside his own art:--

The Green Vault I saw last time I was here, and once is
enough for me; but I revisited with great interest the
picture gallery. If I lived here I would go to it every week,
for there are pictures in it at the sight of which I imagine
I hear music.

Thus our friend spent a week right pleasantly and not altogether
unprofitably in the Saxon Athens, and spent it so busily that what with
visits, dinners, soirees, operas, and other amusements, he leaving his
hotel early in the morning and returning late at night, it passed away
he did not know how.

Chopin, who made also a short stay in Prague--of which visit, however,
we have no account--arrived in Vienna in the latter part of November,
1830. His intention was to give some concerts, and to proceed in a month
or two to Italy. How the execution of this plan was prevented by various
circumstances we shall see presently. Chopin flattered himself with the
belief that managers, publishers, artists, and the public in general
were impat