mistress Musica without regret and with little
compunction. But to return to Chopin. Franchomme excused his friend
by saying that teaching and the claims of society left him no time for
reading. But if Chopin neglected French literature--not to speak of
other ancient and modern literatures--he paid some attention to that of
his native country; at any rate, new publications of Polish books were
generally to be found on his table. The reader will also remember that
Chopin, in his letters to Fontana, alludes twice to books of poetry--one
by Mickiewicz which was sent him to Majorca, the other by Witwicki which
he had lost sight of.

Indeed, anything Polish had an especial charm and value for Chopin.
Absence from his native country so far from diminishing increased his
love for it. The words with which he is reported to have received the
pianist Mortier de Fontaine, who came to Paris in 1833 and called on him
with letters of introduction, are characteristic in this respect: "It
is enough that you have breathed the air of Warsaw to find a friend
and adviser in me." There is, no doubt, some exaggeration in Liszt's
statement that whoever came to Chopin from Poland, whether with or
without letters of introduction, was sure of a hearty welcome, of being
received with open arms. On the other hand, we may fully believe the
same authority when he says that Chopin often accorded to persons of his
own country what he would not accord to anyone else--namely, the right
of disturbing his habits; that he would sacrifice his time, money,
and comfort to people who were perhaps unknown to him the day before,
showing them the sights of the capital, having them to dine with him,
and taking them in the evening to some theatre. We have already seen
that his most intimate friends were Poles, and this was so in the
aristocratic as well as in the conventionally less-elevated circles.
However pleasant his relations with the Rothschilds may have
been--indeed, Franchomme told me that his friend loved the house of
Rothschild and that this house loved him, and that more especially
Madame Nathaniel Rothschild preserved a touching remembrance of him
[FOOTNOTE: Chopin dedicated to Madame la Baronne C. Rothschild the
Waltz, Op. 64, No. 2 (Parisian Edition), and the Ballade, Op. 52.]--they
can have been but of small significance in comparison with the almost
passionate attachment he had to Prince Alexander Czartoryski and his
wife the Princess Marcelline. An