I have answered him as if I suspected as yet nothing.  Therefore, do not tell him that I write to you, and that for twenty-four hours I have suffered terribly.  Grzymala writes about you very kindly a propos of the tenderness with which you have taken my place by the side of him, and you especially, so that I will tell you that I know it, and that my heart will keep account of it seriously and for ever...

  Au revoir, then, soon, my dear child, and receive my maternal
  benediction.  May it bring you luck as I wish!

  George Sand.

  [Footnote:  This letter, which is not contained in the
  “Correspondance,” was, as far as I know, first published in
  “Die Gegenwart” (Berlin, July 12, 1879)]

If all that George Sand here says is bona fide, the letter proves that the rupture had not yet taken place.  Indeed, Gutmann was of opinion that it did not take place till 1848, shortly before Chopin’s departure for England, that, in-fact, she, her daughter, and son-in-law were present at the concert he gave on February 16, 1848.  That this, however, was not the case is shown both by a letter written by George Sand from Nohant on February 18, 1848, and by another statement of Gutmann’s, according to which one of the causes of the rupture was the marriage of Solange with Clesinger of which Chopin (foreseeing unhappiness which did not fail to come, and led to separation) did not approve.  Another cause, he thought, was Chopin’s disagreements with Maurice Sand.  There were hasty remarks and sharp retorts between lover and son, and scenes in consequence.  Gutmann is a very unsatisfactory informant, everything he read and heard seemed to pass through the retort of his imagination and reappear transformed as his own experience.

A more reliable witness is Franchomme, who in a letter to me summed up the information which he had given me on this subject by word of mouth as follows:—­

Strange to say [chose bizarre], Chopin had a horror of the figure 7; he would not have taken lodgings in a house which bore the number 7; he would not have set out on a journey on the 7th or 17th, &c.  It was in 1837 that he formed the liaison with George Sand; it was in 1847 that the rupture took place; it was on the 17th October that my dear friend said farewell to us.  The rupture between Chopin and Madame Sand came about in this way.  In June, 1847, Chopin was making ready to start for Nohant when he received a letter from Madame Sand to the effect that she had just turned out her daughter and son-in- law, and that if he received them in his house all would be over between them [i.e., between George Sand and Chopin].  I was with Chopin at the time the letter arrived, and he said to me, “They have only me, and should I close my door upon them?  No, I shall not do it!” and he did not do it, and yet he knew that this creature whom he adored would not forgive it him.  Poor friend, how I have seen