pleasing proved too strong for his antipathy. How great this
power of pleasing was when she wished to exercise it, the reader
may judge from the incident I shall now relate. Musset's mother,
having been informed of her son's projected tour to Italy, begged
him to give it up. The poet promised to comply with her request:
"If one must weep, it shall not be you," he said. In the evening
George Sand came in a carriage to the door and asked for Madame
Musset; the latter came out, and after a short interview gave her
consent to her son's departure. Chopin's unsuccessful wooing of
Miss Wodzinska and her marriage with Count Skarbek in this year
(1837) may not have been without effect on the composer. His
heart being left bruised and empty was as it were sensitised (if
I may use this photographic term) for the reception of a new
impression by the action of love. In short, the intimacy between
Chopin and George Sand grew steadily and continued to grow till
it reached its climax in the autumn of 1838, when they went
together to Majorca. Other matters, however, have to be adverted
to before we come to this passage of Chopin's life. First I shall
have to say a few words about his artistic activity during the
years 1837 and 1838.

Among the works composed by Chopin in 1837 was one of the
Variations on the March from I Puritani, which were published
under the title Hexameron: Morceau de Concert. Grandes variations
de bravoure sur la marche des Puritains de Bellini, composees
pour le concert de Madame la Princesse Belgiojoso au benefice des
pauvres, par M.M. Liszt, Thalberg, Pixis, H. Herz, Czerny, et
Chopin. This co-operative undertaking was set on foot by the
Princess, and was one of her many schemes to procure money for
her poor exiled countrymen. Liszt played these Variations often