he did not travel to Italy in vain. Thus Chopin got at last a
glimpse of the land where nine years before he had contemplated taking
up his abode for some time.

On returning to Marseilles, after a stormy passage, on which Chopin
suffered much from sea-sickness, George Sand and her party rested for a
few days at the house of Dr. Cauviere, and then set out, on the 22nd of
May, for Nohant.

Madame Sand to Madame Marliani; Marseilles, May 20, 1839:--

We have just arrived from Genoa, in a terrible storm. The bad
weather kept us on sea double the ordinary time; forty hours
of rolling such as I have not seen for a long time. It was a
fine spectacle, and if everybody had not been ill, I would
have greatly enjoyed it...

We shall depart the day after to-morrow for Nohant. Address
your next letter to me there, we shall be there in eight days.
My carriage has arrived from Chalon at Arles by boat, and we
shall post home very quietly, sleeping at the inns like good
bourgeois.

CHAPTER XXIII.

JUNE TO OCTOBER, 1839.

GEORGE SAND AND CHOPIN'S RETURN TO NOHANT.--STATE OF HIS HEALTH.--HIS
POSITION IN HIS FRIEND'S HOUSE.--HER ACCOUNT OF THEIR RELATIONSHIP.--HIS
LETTERS TO FONTANA, WHICH, AMONG MANY OTHER MATTERS, TREAT OF HIS
COMPOSITIONS AND OF PREPARATIONS TO BE MADE FOR HIS AND GEORGE SAND'S
ARRIVAL IN PARIS.

The date of one of George Sand's letters shows that the travellers were
settled again at Nohant on the 3rd of June, 1839. Dr. Papet, a rich
friend of George Sand's, who practised his art only for the benefit of
the poor and his friends, took the convalescent Chopin at once under
his care. He declared that his patient showed no longer any symptoms
of pulmonary affection, but was suffering merely from a slight chronic
laryngeal affection which, although he did not expect to be able to cure
it, need not cause any serious alarm.

On returning to Nohant, George Sand had her mind much exercised by the
question how to teach her children. She resolved to undertake the task
herself, but found she was not suited for it, at any rate, could not
acquit herself of it satisfactorily without giving up writing. This
question, however, was not the only one that troubled her.

In the irresolution in which I was for a time regarding the
arrangement of my life with a view to what would be best for
my dear children, a serious question was debated in my
conscience. I asked myself if I ough