n at the piano, and improvised the
charming Waltz in D flat (Op. 64), which hence has obtained the name
of Valse du petit chien. This story is well known among the pupils and
friends of the master, but not always told in exactly the same way.
According to another version, Chopin improvised the waltz when the
little dog was playing with a ball of wool. This variation, however,
does not affect the pith of the story.

The following two extracts tell us more about the intimate home-life at
Nohant and in the Court d'Orleans than anything we have as yet met with.

Madame Sand to her son; October 17, 1843:--

Tell me if Chopin is ill; his letters are short and sad. Take
care of him if he is ailing. Take a little my place. He would
take my place with so much zeal if you were ill.

Madame Sand to her son; November 16, 1843:--

If you care for the letter which I have written you about her
[Solange], ask Chopin for it. It was for both of you, and it
has not given him much pleasure. He has taken it amiss, and
yet I did not wish to annoy him, God forbid! We shall all see
each other soon again, and hearty embraces [de bonnes
bigeades] [FOOTNOTE: Biger is in the Berry dialect "to kiss."]
all round shall efface all my sermons.

In another of George Sand's letters to her son--it is dated November 28,
1843--we read about Chopin's already often-mentioned valet. Speaking
of the foundation of a provincial journal, "L'Eclaireur de l'Indre," by
herself and a number of her friends, and of their being on the look-out
for an editor who would be content with the modest salary of 2,000
francs, she says:--

This is hardly more than the wages of Chopin's domestic, and
to imagine that for this it is possible to find a man of
talent! First measure of the Committee of Public Safety: we
shall outlaw Chopin if he allows himself to have lackeys
salaried like publicists.

Chopin treated George Sand with the greatest respect and devotion; he
was always aux petits soins with her. It is characteristic of the man
and exemplifies strikingly the delicacy of his taste and feeling that
his demeanour in her house showed in no way the intimate relation in
which he stood to the mistress of it: he seemed to be a guest like any
other occasional visitor. Lenz wishes to make us believe that George
Sand's treatment of Chopin was unworthy of the great artist, but his
statements are emphatically contradicted by Gutmann, who sa