has drawn and painted the latter frequently. Well,
the information I received from him is to the effect that Chopin had
des yeux bruns tendres (eyes of a tender brown), and les cheveux blonds
chatains (chestnut-blonde hair). Liszt, from whose book some of the
above details are derived, completes his portrayal of Chopin by some
characteristic touches. The timbre of his voice, he says, was subdued
and often muffled; and his movements had such a distinction and
his manners such an impress of good society that one treated him
unconsciously like a prince. His whole appearance made one think of
that of the convolvuli, which on incredibly slender stems balance
divinely-coloured chalices of such vapourous tissue that the slightest
touch destroys them.

And whilst Liszt attributes to Chopin all sorts of feminine graces and
beauties, he speaks of George Sand as an Amazon, a femme-heros, who is
not afraid to expose her masculine countenance to all suns and winds.
Merimee says of George Sand that he has known her "maigre comme un clou
et noire comme une taupe." Musset, after their first meeting, describes
her, to whom he at a subsequent period alludes as femme a l'oeil sombre,
thus:--

She is very beautiful; she is the kind of woman I like--brown,
pale, dull-complexioned with reflections as of bronze, and
strikingly large-eyed like an Indian. I have never been able
to contemplate such a countenance without inward emotion. Her
physiognomy is rather torpid, but when it becomes animated it
assumes a remarkably independent and proud expression.

The most complete literary portrayal of George Sand that has been handed
down to us, however, is by Heine. He represents her as Chopin knew
her, for although he published the portrait as late as 1854 he did not
represent her as she then looked; indeed, at that time he had probably
no intercourse with her, and therefore was obliged to draw from memory.
The truthfulness of Heine's delineation is testified by the approval of
many who knew George Sand, and also by Couture's portrait of her:--

George Sand, the great writer, is at the same time a beautiful
woman. She is even a distinguished beauty. Like the genius
which manifests itself in her works, her face is rather to be
called beautiful than interesting. The interesting is always a
graceful or ingenious deviation from the type of the
beautiful, and the features of George Sand bear rather the
impress of a Greek re