ost favourable conditions." They then went on
to Barcelona and to Palma. In November, 1838, George Sand wrote a most
enthusiastic letter: "It is poetry, solitude, all that is most
artistic and _chique_ on earth. And what skies, what a country; we are
delighted."(26) The disenchantment was soon to begin, though. The first
difficulty was to find lodgings, and the second to get furniture. There
was no wood to burn and there was no linen to be had. It took two months
to have a pair of tongs made, and it cost twenty-eight pounds at the
customs for a piano to enter the country. With great difficulty, the
forlorn travellers found a country-house belonging to a man named Gomez,
which they were able to rent. It was called the "Windy House." The wind
did not inconvenience them like the rain, which now commenced. Chopin
could not endure the heat and the odour of the fires. His disease
increased, and this was the origin of the great tribulations that were
to follow.

Buloz:

_Monday 13th._

MY DEAR CHRISTINE,

"I have only been at Palma four days. My journey has been
very satisfactory, but rather long and difficult until we
were out of France. I took up my pen (as people say) twenty
times over to write the last five or six pages for which
_Spiridion_ has been waiting for six months. It is not the
easiest thing in the world, I can assure you, to give the
conclusion of one's own religious belief, and when
travelling it is impossible. At twenty different places I
have resolved to think it solemnly over and to write down my
conclusion. But these stoppages were the most tiring part of
our journey. There were visits, dinners, walks, curiosities,
ruins, the Vaucluse fountain, Reboul and the Nimes arena,
the Barcelona cathedrals, dinners on board the war-ships,
the Italian theatres of Spain (and what theatres and what
Italians!), guitars and Heaven knows what beside. There was
the moonlight on the sea and above all Valma and Mallorca,
the most delightful place in the world, and all this kept me
terribly far away from philosophy and theology. Fortunately
I have found some superb convents here all in ruins, with
palm-trees, aloes and the cactus in the midst of broken
mosaics and crumbling cloisters, and this takes me back to
_Spiridion_. For the last three days I have had a rage for
work, which I canno