s angered when the precious
children asked him "Cher M. Chopin, have you read 'Lucrezia'? Mamma has
put you in it." Of all persons Sand was pre-elected to give to the
world a true, a sympathetic picture of her friend. She understood him,
but she had not the power of putting him between the coversof a book.
If Flaubert, or better still, Pierre Loti, could have known Chopin so
intimately we should possess a memoir in which every vibration of
emotion would be recorded, every shade noted, and all pinned with the
precise adjective, the phrase exquisite.

III. ENGLAND, SCOTLAND AND PERE LA CHAISE.

The remaining years of Chopin's life were lonely. His father died in
1844 of chest and heart complaint, his sister Emilia died of
consumption--ill-omens these!--and shortly after, John Matuszynski
died. Titus Woyciechowski was in far-off Poland on his estates and
Chopin had but Grzymala and Fontana to confide in; they being Polish he
preferred them, although he was diplomatic enough not to let others see
this. Both Franchomme and Gutmann whispered to Niecks at different
times that each was the particular soul, the alter ego, of Chopin. He
appeared to give himself to his friends but it was usually surface
affection. He had coaxing, coquettish ways, playful ways that cost him
nothing when in good spirits. So he was "more loved than loving." This
is another trait of the man, which, allied with his fastidiousness and
spiritual brusquerie, made him difficult to decipher. The loss of Sand
completed his misery and we find him in poor health when he arrived in
London, for the second and last time, April 21, 1848.

Mr. A. J. Hipkins is the chief authority on the details of Chopin's
visit to England. To this amiable gentleman and learned writer on
pianos, Franz Hueffer, Joseph Bennett and Niecks are indebted for the
most of their facts. From them the curious may learn all there is to
learn. The story is not especially noteworthy, being in the main a
record of ill-health, complainings, lamentations and not one signal
artistic success.

War was declared upon Chopin by a part of the musical world. The
criticism was compounded of pure malice and stupidity. Chopin was
angered but little for he was too sick to care now. He went to an
evening party but missed the Macready dinner where he was to have met
Thackeray, Berlioz, Mrs. Procter and Sir Julius Benedict. With Benedict
he played a Mozart duet at the Duchess of Sutherland's. Whether