ook she traces the portrait of Chopin
as Prince Karol. She denied, of course, that it was a portrait, but
contemporaries were not to be deceived, and Liszt gives several passages
from _Lucrezia Floriani_ in his biography of the musician. The decisive
proof was that Chopin recognized himself, and that he was greatly
annoyed.

As a matter of fact, there was nothing disagreeable about this portrait.
The following fragments are taken from it: "Gentle, sensitive, exquisite
in all things, at the age of fifteen he had all the charms of youth,
together with the gravity of a riper age. He remained delicate in body
ind mind. The lack of muscular development caused him to preserve his
fascinating beauty. . . . He was something like one of those ideal
creatures which mediaeval poetry used for the ornamentation of Christian
temples. Nothing could have been purer and at the same time more
enthusiastic than his ideas. . . . He was always lost in his dreams,
and had no sense of reality. . . ." His exquisite politeness was then
described, and the ultra acuteness and nervosity which resulted in that
power of divination which he possessed. For a portrait to be living,
it must have some faults as well as qualities. His delineator does
not forget to mention the attitude of mystery in which the Prince took
refuge whenever his feelings were hurt. She speaks also of his intense
susceptibility. "His wit was very brilliant," she says; "it consisted of
a kind of subtle mocking shrewdness, not really playful, but a sort of
delicate, bantering gaiety." It may have been to the glory of Prince
Karol to resemble Chopin, but it was also quite creditable to Chopin
to have been the model from which this distinguished neurasthenic
individual was taken.

Prince Karol meets a certain Lucrezia Floriani, a rich actress and
courtesan. She is six years older than he is, somewhat past her prime,
and now leading a quiet life. She has done with love and love affairs,
or, at least, she thinks so. "The fifteen years of passion and torture,
which she had gone through, seemed to her now so cruel that she was
hoping to have them counted double by the supreme Dispenser of our
trials." It was, of course, natural that she should acknowledge God's
share in the matter. We are told that "implacable destiny was not
satisfied," so that when Karol makes his first declaration, Lucrezia
yields to him, but at the same time she puts a suitable colouring on
her fall. There are man