" I said "supposing the story to be true," because, although
it has been reported that Chopin was fond of alluding to this incident,
his best friends seem to know nothing of it: Liszt does not mention
it, Hiller and Franchomme told me they never heard of it, and
notwithstanding Karasowski's contrary statement there is nothing to be
found about it in Sowinski's Musiciens polonais. Still, the story may
have a substratum of truth, to arrive at which it has only to be shorn
of its poetical accessories and exaggerations, of which, however, there
is little in my version.

But to whatever extent, or whether to any extent at all, this or any
similar soiree may have served Chopin as a favourable introduction to
a wider circle of admirers and patrons, and as a stepping-stone to
success, his indebtedness to his countrymen, who from the very first
befriended and encouraged him, ought not to be forgotten or passed over
in silence for the sake of giving point to a pretty anecdote. The great
majority of the Polish refugees then living in Paris would of course
rather require than be able to afford help and furtherance, but there
was also a not inconsiderable minority of persons of noble birth and
great wealth whose patronage and influence could not but be of immense
advantage to a struggling artist. According to Liszt, Chopin was on
intimate terms with the inmates of the Hotel Lambert, where old Prince
Adam Czartoryski and his wife and daughter gathered around them "les
debris de la Pologne que la derniere guerre avait jetes au loin." Of the
family of Count Plater and other compatriots with whom the composer had
friendly intercourse we shall speak farther on. Chopin's friends were
not remiss in exerting themselves to procure him pupils and good fees at
the same time. They told all inquirers that he gave no lesson for less
than twenty francs, although he had expressed his willingness to be at
first satisfied with more modest terms. Chopin had neither to wait in
vain nor to wait long, for in about a year's time he could boast of a
goodly number of pupils.

The reader must have noticed with surprise the absence of any mention of
the "Ideal" from Chopin's letters to his friend Titus Woyciechowski,
to whom the love-sick artist was wont to write so voluminously on this
theme. How is this strange silence to be accounted for? Surely this
passionate lover could not have forgotten her beneath whose feet he
wished his ashes to be spread after hi