ouzzo,
Countess Mostowska, Countess Czosnowska, Comtesse de Flahault, Baroness
von Billing, Baron and Baroness von Stockhausen, Countess von Lobau,
Mdlle. de Noailles, &c. And in addition to these we have representatives
of the aristocracy of wealth, Madame C. de Rothschild foremost amongst
them. Whether the banker Leo with whom and his family Chopin was on very
friendly terms may be mentioned in this connection, I do not know.
But we must remember that round many of the above names cluster large
families. The names of the sisters Countess Potocka and Princesse de
Beauvau call up at once that of their mother, Countess Komar. Many of
these here enumerated are repeatedly mentioned in the course of this
book, some will receive particular attention in the next chapter. Now we
will try to get a glimpse of Chopin in society.

Madame de Girardin, after having described in one of her "Lettres
parisiennes" (March 7, 1847) [FOOTNOTE: The full title of the work is:
"Le Vicomte de Launay--Lettres parisiennes par Mdme. Emile de Girardin."
(Paris: Michel Levy freres.)] with what success Mdlle. O'Meara
accompanied by her master played his E minor Concerto at a soiree
of Madame de Courbonne, proceeds thus:--

Mdlle. Meara is a pupil of Chopin's. He was there, he was
present at the triumph of his pupil, the anxious audience asked
itself: "Shall we hear him?"

The fact is that it was for passionate admirers the torment of
Tantalus to see Chopin going about a whole evening in a salon and
not to hear him. The mistress of the house took pity on us; she
was indiscreet, and Chopin played, sang his most delicious songs;
we set to these joyous or sad airs the words which came into our
heads; we followed with our thoughts his melodious caprices.
There were some twenty of us, sincere amateurs, true believers,
and not a note was lost, not an intention was misunderstood; it
was not a concert, it was intimate, serious music such as we
love; he was not a virtuoso who comes and plays the air agreed
upon and then disappears; he was a beautiful talent, monopolised,
worried, tormented, without consideration and scruples, whom one
dared ask for the most beloved airs, and who full of grace and
charity repeated to you the favourite phrase, in order that you
might carry it away correct and pure in your memory, and for a
long time yet feast on it in remembrance. Madame so-and-so said:
"Please, play this pretty noctu