This shows us clearly the kind of charm George
Sand found in Pagello. She loved him because he was stupid.
The next questions are, when did they become lovers, and how did Musset
discover their intimacy? It is quite certain that he suspected it,
and that he made Pagello confess his love for George Sand.(20) A most
extraordinary scene then took place between the three of them, according
to George Sand's own account. "Adieu, then," she wrote to Musset, later
on, "adieu to the fine poem of our sacred friendship and of that ideal
bond formed between the three of us, when you dragged from him the
confession of his love for me and when he vowed to you that he would
make me happy. Oh, that night of enthusiasm, when, in spite of us, you
joined our hands, saying: 'You love each other and yet you love me,
for you have saved me, body and soul." Thus, then, Musset had solemnly
abjured his love for George Sand, he had engaged his mistress of the
night before to a new lover, and was from henceforth to be their best
friend. Such was the ideal bond, such the sacred friendship! This may be
considered the romantic escapade.
(20) On one of George Sand's unpublished letters to Buloz
the following lines are written in the handwriting of Buloz:
"In the morning on getting up he discovered, in an adjoining
room, a tea-table still set, but with only one cup.
"'Did you have tea yesterday evening?'
"'Yes,' answered George Sand, 'I had tea with the doctor.'
"'Ah, how is it that there is only one cup?'
"'The other has been taken away.'
"'No, nothing has been taken away. You drank out of the
same cup.'
"'Even if that were so, you have no longer the right to
trouble about such things.'
"'I have the right, as I am still supposed to be your lover.
You ought at least to show me respect, and, as I am leaving
in three days, you might wait until I have gone to do as you
like.'
"The night following this scene Musset discovered George
Sand, crouching on her bed, writing a letter.
"'What are you doing?' he asked.
"'I am reading,' she replied, and she blew out the candle.
"'If you are reading, why do you put the candle out?'
"'It went out itself: light it again.'
"Alfred de Musset lit it again.
"'Ah, so you were reading, and you have no book. Infamous
woman, you might as well say that you are writ
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