When we consider the diversity of character, it is not a matter for wonder that Chopin was at first rather repelled than attracted by the personality of George Sand.  Nor is it, on the other hand, a matter for wonder that her beauty and power of 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 at his concerts, and even wrote orchestral accompaniments to them, which, however, were never published.

Chopin’s publications of the year 1837 are:  in October, Op. 25, Douze Etudes, dedicated to Madame la Comtesse d’Agoult; and in December, Op. 29, Impromptu (in A flat major), dedicated to Mdlle. la Comtesse de Lobau; Op. 30, Quatre Mazurkas, dedicated to Madame la Princesse de Wurtemberg, nee Princesse Czartoryska; Op. 31, Deuxieme Scherzo (B flat minor), dedicated to Mdlle. la Comtesse Adele de Furstenstein; and Op. 32, Deux Nocturnes (B major and A flat major), dedicated to Madame la Baronne de Billing.  His publications of the year 1838 are:  in October, Op. 33, Quatre Mazurkas, dedicated to Mdlle. la Comtesse Mostowska; and, in December, Op. 34, Trois Valses brillantes (A flat major, A minor, and F major), respectively dedicated to Mdlle. de Thun-Hohenstein, Madame G. d’Ivri, and Mdlle.  A. d’Eichthal.