be difficult to find a more trustworthy witness in this matter
than Liszt, who at that time not only was one of the chief
comrades of Chopin, but also of George Sand. According to him,
then, the meeting came about in this way. George Sand, whose
curiosity had been excited both by the Polish musician's
compositions and by the accounts she had heard of him, expressed
to Liszt the wish to make the acquaintance of his friend. Liszt
thereupon spoke about her to Chopin, but the latter was averse to
having any intercourse with her. He said he did not like literary
women, and was not made for their society; it was different with
his friend, who there found himself in his element. George Sand,
however, did not cease to remind Liszt of his promise to
introduce her to Chopin. One morning in the early part of 1837
Liszt called on his friend and brother-artist, and found him in
high spirits on account of some compositions he had lately
finished. As Chopin was anxious to play them to his friends, it
was arranged to have in the evening a little party at his rooms.

This seemed to Liszt an excellent opportunity to redeem the
promise which he had given George Sand when she asked for an
introduction; and, without telling Chopin what he was going to
do, he brought her with him along with the Comtesse d'Agoult. The
success of the soiree was such that it was soon followed by a
second and many more.

In the foregoing accounts the reader will find contradictions
enough to exercise his ingenuity upon. But the involuntary tricks
of memory and the voluntary ones of imagination make always such
terrible havoc of facts that truth, be it ever so much sought and
cared for, appears in history and biography only in a more or