closer relationship.

Subsequent to his stay at Marienbad Chopin again visited Leipzig. But
the promises which Mendelssohn and Chopin had so solemnly made to each
other in the preceding year had not been kept; the latter did not go
in the course of the winter to Leipzig, and if he had gone, the former
could not have performed a new symphony of his in honour of the guest.
Several passages in letters written by Schumann in the early part
of 1836 show, however, that Chopin was not forgotten by his Leipzig
friends, with whom he seems to have been in correspondence. On March 8,
1836, Schumann wrote to Moscheles:--

Mendelssohn sends you his hearty greetings. He has finished
his oratorio, and will conduct it himself at the Dusseldorf
Musical Festival. Perhaps I shall go there too, perhaps also
Chopin, to whom we shall write about it.

The first performance of Mendelssohn's St. Paul took place at Dusseldorf
on May 22, and was a great success. But neither Schumann nor Chopin
was there. The latter was, no doubt, already planning his excursion to
Marienbad, and could not allow himself the luxury of two holidays within
so short a time.

Here is another scrap from a letter of Schumann's, dated August
28, 1836, and addressed to his brother Edward and his sister-in-law
Theresa:--

I have just written to Chopin, who is said to be in
Marienbad, in order to learn whether he is really there. In
any case, I should visit you again in autumn. But if Chopin
answers my letter at once, I shall start sooner, and go to
Marienbad by way of Carlsbad. Theresa, what do you think! you
must come with me! Read first Chopin's answer, and then we
will fully discuss the rest.

Chopin either had left or was about to leave Marienbad when he received
Schumann's letter. Had he received it sooner, his answer would not have
been very encouraging. For in his circumstances he could not but have
felt even the most highly-esteemed confrere, the most charming of
companions, in the way.[FOOTNOTE: Mendelscohn's sister, Rebecka
Dirichlet, found him completely absorbed in his Polish Countess. (See
The Mendelssohn Family, Vol. II, p. 15.)] But although the two musicians
did not meet at Marienbad, they saw each other at Leipzig. How much one
of them enjoyed the visit may be seen in the following extract from a
letter which Schumann wrote to Heinrich Dorn on September 14, 1836:--

The day before yesterday, just after I had rece