and in her love affairs was always the man. She treated Chopin as a
child, a toy, used him for literary copy--pace Mr. Hadow!--and threw
him over after she had wrung out all the emotional possibilities of the
problem. She was true to herself even when she attempted to palliate
her want of heart. Beware of the woman who punctuates the pages of her
life with "heart" and "maternal feelings." "If I do not believe any
more in tears it is because I saw thee crying!" exclaimed Chopin. Sand
was the product of abnormal forces, she herself was abnormal, and her
mental activity, while it created no permanent types in literary
fiction, was also abnormal. She dominated Chopin, as she had dominated
Jules Sandeau, Calmatta the mezzotinter, De Musset, Franz Liszt,
Delacroix, Michel de Bourges--I have not the exact chronological
order--and later Flaubert. The most lovable event in the life of this
much loved woman was her old age affair--purely platonic--with Gustave
Flaubert. The correspondence shows her to have been "maternal" to the
last.

In the recently published "Lettres a l'etrangere" of Honore de Balzac,
this about Sand is very apropos. A visit paid to George Sand at Nohant,
in March 1838, brought the following to Madame Hanska:

It was rather well that I saw her, for we exchanged
confidences regarding Sandeau. I, who blamed her to the last
for deserting him, now feel only a deep compassion for her, as
you will have for me, when you learn with whom we have had
relations, she of love, I of friendship.

But she has been even more unhappy with Musset. So here she
is, in retreat, denouncing both marriage and love, because in
both she has found nothing but delusion.

I will tell you of her immense and secret devotion to these
two men, and you will agree that there is nothing in common
between angels and devils. All the follies she has committed
are claims to glory in the eyes of great and beautiful souls.
She has been the dupe of la Dorval, Bocage, Lamenais, etc.;
through the same sentiment she is the dupe of Liszt and Madame
d'Agoult.

So let us accept without too much questioning as did Balzac, a reader
of souls, the Sand-Chopin partnership and follow its sinuous course
until 1847.

Chopin met Sand at a musical matinee in 1837. Niecks throttles every
romantic yarn about the pair that has been spoken or printed. He got
his facts viva voce from Franchomme. Sand was antipathetic to Chopin
but her