. . . ."

This certainly does not sound very enthusiastic. The question is whether
he composed anything at all at Valdemosa. Liszt presents him to
us improvising his Prelude in B flat minor under the most dramatic
circumstances. We are told that one day, when George Sand and her
children had started on an excursion, they were surprised by a
thunderstorm. Chopin had stayed at home in the monastery, and, terrified
at the danger he foresaw for them, he fainted. Before they reached home
he had improvised his _Prelude_, in which he has put all his terror and
the nervousness due to his disease. It appears, though, that all this is
a legend, and that there is not a single echo of the stay at Valdemosa
in Chopin's work.

The deplorable journey to Majorca dates from November, 1838 to March,
1839. The intimacy between George Sand and Chopin continued eight years
more.

In the summer Chopin stayed it Nohant. Eugene Delacroix, who was paying
a visit there too, describes his presence as follows: "At times, through
the window opening on to the garden, we get wafts of Chopin's music, as
he too is at work. It is mingled with the songs of the nightingales and
with the perfume of the rose trees."

Chopin did not care much for Nohant. In the first place, he only liked
the country for about a fortnight at a time, which is very much like
not caring for it at all. Then what made him detest the country were the
inhabitants. Hippolyte Chatiron was terrible after he had been drinking.
He was extremely effusive and cordial.

In the winter they first lived in the Rue Pigalle. George Sand used to
receive Pierre Leroux, Louis Blanc, Edgar Quinet, Etienne Arago, and
many other men. Chopin, who was not very intellectual, felt ill at
ease amongst all these literary men, these reformers, arguers and
speechifiers. In 1842, they emigrated to the Square d'Orleans. There
was a sort of little colony established there, consisting of Alexandre
Dumas, Dantan the caricaturist, the Viardots, Zimmermann, and the wife
of the Spanish consul, Madame Marliani, who had attracted them all
there. They took their meals together. It was a regular phalinstery, and
Chopin had very elegant tastes!

We must give George Sand credit for looking after him with admirable
devotion. She certainly went on nursing her "invalid," or her "dear
skeleton," as she called him, but her infatuation had been over for a
long time. The absolute contrast of two natures may be attractive a