rably well I should certainly have visited you in Belgium.

Perhaps you may manage to come here. I am not egotistic enough
to ask you to come only on my account; for, as I am ill, you
would have with me weary hours and disappointments, but,
perhaps, also hours of comfort, and of beautiful reminiscences
of our youth, and I wish only that our time together may be a
time of happiness.--Yours ever,

FREDERICK.

When Chopin wrote the second of the above letters he was staying in
a part of Paris more suitable for summer quarters than the Square
d'Orleans--namely, in the Rue Chaillot, whither he had removed in the
end of August.

The Rue Chaillot [writes M. Charles Gavard] was then a very
quiet street, where one thought one's self rather in the
province than in the capital. A large court-yard led to
Chopin's apartments on the second story and with a view of
Paris, which can be seen from the height of Chaillot.

The friends who found these apartments for the invalid composer made
him believe that the rent was only 200 francs. But in reality it was 400
francs, and a Russian lady, Countess Obreskoff, [FOOTNOTE: Madame Rubio,
differing in this one particular from Franchomme, said that Chopin paid
100 francs and Countess Obreskoff 200.] paid one half of it. When Chopin
expressed surprise at the lowness of the rent, he was told that lodgings
were cheap in summer.

This last story prompts me to say a few words about Chopin's pecuniary
circumstances, and naturally leads me to another story, one more like
romance than reality. Chopin was a bad manager, or rather he was no
manager at all. He spent inconsiderately, and neglecting to adapt his
expenditure to his income, he was again and again under the necessity of
adapting his income to his expenditure. Hence those borrowings of money
from friends, those higglings with and dunnings of publishers, in short,
all those meannesses which were unworthy of so distinguished an artist,
and irreconcilable with his character of grand seigneur. Chopin's income
was more than sufficient to provide him with all reasonable comforts;
but he spent money like a giddy-headed, capricious woman, and
unfortunately for him had not a fond father or husband to pay the debts
thus incurred. Knowing in what an unsatisfactory state his financial
affairs were when he was earning money by teaching and publishing, we
can have no difficulty in imagining into what straits he must h