characteristic touches. The timbre of his voice, he says, was
subdued and often muffled; and his movements had such a
distinction and his manners such an impress of good society that
one treated him unconsciously like a prince. His whole appearance
made one think of that of the convolvuli, which on incredibly
slender stems balance divinely-coloured chalices of such
vapourous tissue that the slightest touch destroys them.

And whilst Liszt attributes to Chopin all sorts of feminine
graces and beauties, he speaks of George Sand as an Amazon, a
femme-heros, who is not afraid to expose her masculine
countenance to all suns and winds. Merimee says of George Sand
that he has known her "maigre comme un clou et noire comme une
taupe." Musset, after their first meeting, describes her, to whom
he at a subsequent period alludes as femme a l'oeil sombre, thus:-
-

She is very beautiful; she is the kind of woman I like--brown,
pale, dull-complexioned with reflections as of bronze, and
strikingly large-eyed like an Indian. I have never been able
to contemplate such a countenance without inward emotion. Her
physiognomy is rather torpid, but when it becomes animated it
assumes a remarkably independent and proud expression.

The most complete literary portrayal of George Sand that has been
handed down to us, however, is by Heine. He represents her as
Chopin knew her, for although he published the portrait as late
as 1854 he did not represent her as she then looked; indeed, at
that time he had probably no intercourse with her, and therefore
was obliged to draw from memory. The truthfulness of Heine's