n, one of the most
eminent pianists of our epoch, has just made a tour of Germany, which
has been for him a real ovation. Everywhere his admirable talent
obtained the most flattering reception and excited much enthusiasm."

The story of Chopin's attraction for Marie Wodzinski and his reported
engagement to her, is soon told. During his visit in Dresden, after
leaving his parents in Carlsbad, he saw much of his old friends, Count
Wodzinski and his family. The daughter, Marie, aged nineteen, was
tall and slender, not beautiful but charming, with soft dark hair and
soulful eyes. Chopin spent all his evenings at their home and saw much
of Marie. The last evening the girl gave him a rose, and he composed a
valse for her.

The next summer the two met again at Marienbad, and resumed their
walks, talks and music. She drew his portrait, and one day Chopin
proposed. She assured him she would always remain his friend, but her
family would never consent to their marriage. So that brief romance
was over.

An attachment of a different sort was that with Mme. Dudevant, known
in literature as George Sand. Books have been written about this
remarkable woman. The family at Nohant where she had spent her
childhood, where her two children, Maurice and Solange, lived, and
where her husband sometimes came, became distasteful to her; she
wanted to see life. Paris offered it. Although possessing ample means,
she arranged to spend six months in Paris each year, and live on two
hundred and fifty francs a month. She came in 1831. Her _menage_
was of the simplest--three small rooms, with meals from a near-by
restaurant at two francs; she did the washing herself. Woman's attire
was too expensive, so, as she had worn man's attire when riding and
hunting at Nohant, she saw nothing shocking in wearing it in Paris.

Her literary student life, as she called it, now began. She went about
the streets at all times, in all weathers; went to garrets, studios,
clubs, theaters, coffee-houses, everywhere but the _salons_. The
romance of society-life as it was lived in the French capital, were
the studies she ardently pursued. From these studies of life grew the
several novels she produced during the years that followed.

It is said that Chopin met Mme. Sand at a musical matinee, given by
the Marquis of C, where the aristocracy of genius, wealth and beauty
had assembled. Chopin had gone to the piano and was absorbed in an
improvisation, when lifting his ey