ake him to a milder
climate, hoping thus to prevent a return of the rheumatism from which he
had suffered so much in the preceding year. Besides, she wished to live
for some time in a quiet place where she could make her children work,
and could work herself, undisturbed by the claims of society.

As I was making my plans and preparations for departure [she
goes on to say], Chopin, whom I saw every day and whose genius
and character I tenderly loved, said to me that if he were in
Maurice's place he would soon recover. I believed it, and I
was mistaken. I did not put him in the place of Maurice on the
journey, but beside Maurice. His friends had for long urged
him to go and spend some time in the south of Europe. People
believed that he was consumptive. Gaubert examined him and
declared to me that he was not. "You will save him, in fact,"
he said to me, "if you give him air, exercise, and rest."
Others, knowing well that Chopin would never make up his mind
to leave the society and life of Paris without being carried
off by a person whom he loved and who was devoted to him,
urged me strongly not to oppose the desire he showed so a
propos and in a quite unhoped-for way.

As time showed, I was wrong in yielding to their hopes and my
own solicitude. It was indeed enough to go abroad alone with
two children, one already ill, the other full of exuberant
health and spirits, without taking upon myself also a terrible
anxiety and a physician's responsibility.

But Chopin was just then in a state of health that reassured
everybody. With the exception of Grzymala, who saw more
clearly how matters stood, we were all hopeful. I nevertheless
begged Chopin to consider well his moral strength, because for
several years he had never contemplated without dread the idea
of leaving Paris, his physician, his acquaintances, his room
even, and his piano. He was a man of imperious habits, and
every change, however small it might be, was a terrible event
in his life.

Seeing that Liszt--who was at the time in Italy--and Karasowski speak
only from hearsay, we cannot do better than accept George Sand's
account, which contains nothing improbable. In connection with this
migration to the south, I must, however, not omit to mention certain
statements of Adolph Gutmann, one of Chopin's pupils. Here is the
substance of what Gutmann told me. Chopin was anxious to go to Majorca,
but for som