"One night George Sand, after writing three pages of prose full
of poetry and inspiration, took an unaddressed envelope, placed
therein the poetic declaration, and handed it to Dr. Pagello. He,
seeing no address, did not, or feigned not, to understand for
whom the letter was intended, and asked George Sand what he
should do with it. Snatching the letter from his hands, she wrote
upon the envelope: 'To the Stupid Pagello.' Some days afterward
George Sand frankly told De Musset that henceforth she could be
to him only a friend."
De Musset died in 1857 and after his death Sand startled Paris
with "Elle et Lui," an obvious answer to "Confessions of a Child
of the Age, "De Musset's version--an uncomplimentary one to
himself--of their separation. The poet's brother Paul rallied to
his memory with "Lui et Elle," and even Louisa Colet ventured
into the fracas with a trashy novel called "Lui." During all this
mud-throwing the cause of the trouble calmly lived in the little
Italian town of Belluno. It was Dr. Giuseppe Pagello who will go
down in literary history as the one man that played Joseph to
George Sand.
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