Pierre Mille, who has just published in the
"Revue Bleue" some letters of Chopin (first printed, it seems,
in a Warsaw newspaper), would have us believe that the lady
was really the masculine partner. We are to understand that it
was Chopin who did the weeping, and pouting, and "scene"-
making while George Sand did the consoling, the pooh-poohing,
and the protecting. Liszt had already given us a
characteristic anecdote of this Majorca period. We see George
Sand, in sheer exuberance of health and animal spirits,
wandering out into the storm, while Chopin stays at home, to
have an attack of "nerves," to give vent to his anxiety (oh,
"artistic temperament"!) by composing a prelude, and to fall
fainting at the lady's feet when she returns safe and sound.
There is no doubt that the lady had enough of the masculine
temper in her to be the first to get tired. And as poor Chopin
was coughing and swooning most of the time, this is scarcely
surprising. But she did not leave him forthwith. She kept up
the pretence of loving him, in a maternal, protecting sort of
way, out of pity, as it were, for a sick child.
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