bit of rudeness on the part of the tutor—­for, to explain the matter better to you, he corrects my orthographical mistakes (after the fashion of M. Marlet.

You will come back to us in the month of September, will you not?  Try to let us know the day as we have resolved to give you a serenade (or charivari).  The most distinguished artists of the capital—­M.  Franchomme (present), Madame Petzold, and the Abbe Bardin, the coryphees of the Rue d’Amboise (and my neighbours), Maurice Schlesinger, uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, &c., &c.) en plan du troisieme, &c. [Footnote:  I give the last words in the original French, because I am not sure of their meaning.  Hiller, to whom I applied for an explanation, was unable to help me.  Perhaps Chopin uses here the word plan in the pictorial sense (premier plan, foreground; second plan, middle distance).]

   The responsible editors,

   (F.  Liszt.) F. Chopin. (Aug.  Franchomme.)

A Propos, I met Heine yesterday, who asked me to grussen you herzlich und herzlich. [Footnote:  To greet you heartily and heartily.] A propos again, pardon me for all the “you’s”—­I beg you to forgive me them.  If you have a moment to spare let us have news of you, which is very precious to us.

   Paris:  Rue de la Chaussee d’Antin, No. 5.

At present I occupy Franck’s lodgings—­he has set out for London and Berlin; I feel quite at home in the rooms which were so often our place of meeting.  Berlioz embraces you.  As to pere Baillot, he is in Switzerland, at Geneva, and so you will understand why I cannot send you Bach’s Concerto.

   June 20, 1833.

Some of the names that appear in this letter will give occasion for comment.  Chopin, as Hiller informed me, went frequently to the ambassadors Appony and Von Kilmannsegge, and still more frequently to his compatriots, the Platers.  At the house of the latter much good music was performed, for the countess, the Pani Kasztelanowa (the wife of the castellan), to whom Liszt devotes an eloquent encomium, “knew how to welcome so as to encourage all the talents that then promised to take their upward flight and form une lumineuse pleiade,” being

in turn fairy, nurse, godmother, guardian angel, delicate benefactress, knowing all that threatens, divining all that saves, she was to each of us an amiable protectress, equally beloved and respected, who enlightened, warmed, and elevated his [Chopin’s] inspiration, and left a blank in his life when she was no more.

It was she who said one day to Chopin:  “Si j’etais jeune et jolie, mon petit Chopin, je te prendrais pour mari, Hiller pour ami, et Liszt pour amant.”  And it was at her house that the interesting contention of Chopin with Liszt and Hiller took place.  The Hungarian and the German having denied the assertion of the Pole that only