The final causes are not very interesting. Niecks has sifted all
the evidence before the court and jury of scandal-mongers. The
main quarrel was about the marriage of Solange Sand with
Clesinger the sculptor. Her mother did not oppose the match, but
later she resented Clesinger's actions. He was coarse and
violent, she said, with the true mother-in-law spirit--and when
Chopin received the young woman and her husband after a terrible
scene at Nohant, she broke with him. It was a good excuse. He had
ennuied her for several years, and as he had completed his
artistic work on this planet and there was nothing more to be
studied,--the psychological portrait was supposedly painted--
Madame George got rid of him. The dark stories of maternal
jealousy, of Chopin's preference for Solange, the visit to Chopin
of the concierge's wife to complain of her mistress' behavior
with her husband, all these rakings I leave to others. It was a
triste affair and I do not doubt in the least that it undermined
Chopin's feeble health. Why not! Animals die of broken hearts,
and this emotional product of Poland, deprived of affection, home
and careful attention, may well, as De Lenz swears, have died of
heart-break.
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