e time was kept in suspense by the scantiness of his funds.
This threatening obstacle, however, disappeared when his friend the
pianoforte-maker and publisher, Camille Pleyel, paid him 2,000 francs
for the copyright of the Preludes, Op. 28. Chopin remarked of this
transaction to Gutmann, or in his hearing: "I sold the Preludes to
Pleyel because he liked them [parcequ'il les aimait]." And Pleyel
exclaimed on one occasion: "These are my Preludes [Ce sont mes
Preludes]." Gutmann thought that Pleyel, who was indebted to Chopin for
playing on his instruments and recommending them, wished to assist his
friend in a delicate way with some money, and therefore pretended to
be greatly taken with these compositions and bent upon possessing them.
This, however, cannot be quite correct; for from Chopin's letters, which
I shall quote I presently, it appears that he had indeed promised
Pleyel the Preludes, but before his departure received from him only
500 francs, the remaining 1,500 being paid months afterwards, on the
delivery of the manuscript. These letters show, on the other hand,
that when Chopin was in Majorca he owed to Leo 1,000 francs, which
very likely he borrowed from him to defray part of the expenses of his
sojourn in the south.

[FOOTNOTE: August Leo, a Paris banker, "the friend and patron of many
artists," as he is called by Moscheles, who was related to him through
his wife Charlotte Embden, of Hamburg. The name of Leo occurs often in
the letters and conversations of musicians, especially German musicians,
who visited Paris or lived there in the second quarter of this century.
Leo kept house together with his brother-in-law Valentin. (See Vol. I.,
p. 254.)]

Chopin kept his intention of going with Madame Sand to Majorca secret
from all but a privileged few. According to Franchomme, he did not
speak of it even to his friends. There seem to have been only three
exceptions--Fontana, Matuszynski, and Grzymala, and in his letters to
the first he repeatedly entreats his friend not to talk about him. Nor
does he seem to have been much more communicative after his return, for
none of Chopin's acquaintances whom I questioned was able to tell me
whether the composer looked back on this migration with satisfaction or
with regret; still less did they remember any remark made by him that
would throw a more searching light on this period of his life.

Until recently the only sources of information bearing on Chopin's stay
in Ma