een a foregone conclusion, as also that
Chopin, the most sensitive of mortals, would be infinitely pained by the
inferences that would be drawn. Perhaps if only as a genius, he had the
right to be spared such an infliction; and one must wish it could have
appeared in this light to Madame Sand. It seems as though it were
impossible for the author to put himself at the point of view of the
reader in such matters. The divine spark itself, that quickens certain
faculties, deadens others. When Goethe, in _Werther_, dragged the
private life of his intimate friends, the Kestners, into publicity, and
by falsifying the character of the one and misrepresenting the conduct
of the other, in obedience to the requisitions of art, exposed his
beloved Charlotte and her husband to all manner of annoyances, it never
seems to have entered into his head beforehand but that they would be
delighted by what he had done. Nor could he get over his surprise that
such petty vexations on their part should not be merged in a proud
satisfaction at the literary memorial thus raised by him to their
friendly intercourse! This seems incredible, and yet his sincerity
leaves no room for doubt.

Madame Sand's transgressions on this head, though few, have obtained
great notoriety, on account of the extraordinary celebrity of two of the
personages that suggested characters she has drawn. To the supposed
originals, however obscure, the mortification is the same. But what
often passes uncommented on when the individuals said to be traduced are
unknown to fame, sets the whole world talking when one of the first
musicians or poets of the century is involved; so that Madame Sand has
incurred more censure than other novelists, though she has deserved it
more rarely. But regret remains that for the sake of _Lucrezia
Floriani_, one of the least pleasant though by no means the least
powerful of her novels, she should have exposed herself to the charge of
unkindness to one who had but a short while to live.

Other causes had latterly been combining to lead to differences of which
it would certainly be unfair to lay the whole blame on Madame Sand. The
tie of personal attachment between Chopin and herself was not associated
by identity of outward interests or even of cares and family affections,
such as, in the case of husband and wife, make self-sacrifice possible
under conditions which might otherwise be felt unbearable, and help to
tide over crises of impatience or