This is now a common practice among ladies
abroad, but I believe originated with her.
For the rest, she holds her place in the literary and social world
of France like a man, and seems full of energy and courage in it. I
suppose she has suffered much, but she has also enjoyed and done much,
and her expression is one of calmness and happiness. I was sorry to
see her _exploitant_ her talent so carelessly. She does too much, and
this cannot last forever; but "Teverino" and the "Mare au Diable,"
which she has lately published, are as original, as masterly in truth,
and as free in invention, as anything she has done.
Afterwards I saw Chopin, not with her, although he lives with her, and
has for the last twelve years. I went to see him in his room with one
of his friends. He is always ill, and as frail as a snow-drop, but an
exquisite genius. He played to me, and I liked his talking scarcely
less. Madame S. loved Liszt before him; she has thus been intimate
with the two opposite sides of the musical world. Mickiewicz says,
"Chopin talks with spirit, and gives us the Ariel view of the
universe. Liszt is the eloquent _tribune_ to the world of men, a
little vulgar and showy certainly, but I like the tribune best.
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