A slim frame of middle height; fragile but wonderfully flexible limbs; delicately-formed hands; very small feet; an oval, softly-outlined head; a pale, transparent complexion; long silken hair of a light chestnut colour, parted on one side; tender brown eyes, intelligent rather than dreamy; a finely-curved aquiline nose; a sweet subtle smile; graceful and varied gestures:  such was the outward presence of Chopin.  As to the colour of the eyes and hair, the authorities contradict each other most thoroughly.  Liszt describes the eyes as blue, Karasowski as dark brown, and M. Mathias as “couleur de biere.” [Footnote:  This strange expression we find again in Count Wodzinski’s Les trois Romans de Frederic Chopin, where the author says:  “His large limpid, expressive, and soft eyes had that tint which the English call auburn, which the Poles, his compatriots, describe as piwne (beer colour), and which the French would denominate brown.”] Of the hair Liszt says that it was blonde, Madame Dubois and others that it was cendre, Miss L. Ramann that it was dark blonde, and a Scotch lady that it was dark brown. [Footnote:  Count Wodzinski writes:  “It was not blonde, but of a shade similar to that of his eyes:  ash-coloured (cendre), with golden reflections in the light.”] Happily the matter is settled for us by an authority to which all others must yield—­namely, by M. T. Kwiatkowski, the friend and countryman of Chopin, an artist who has drawn and painted the latter frequently.  Well, the information I received from him is to the effect that Chopin had des yeux bruns tendres (eyes of a tender brown), and les cheveux blonds chatains (chestnut-blonde hair).  Liszt, from whose book some of the above details are derived, completes his portrayal of Chopin by some characteristic touches.  The timbre of his voice, he says, was subdued and often muffled; and his movements had such a distinction and his manners such an impress of good society that one treated him unconsciously like a prince.  His whole appearance made one think of that of the convolvuli, which on incredibly slender stems balance divinely-coloured chalices of such vapourous tissue that the slightest touch destroys them.

And whilst Liszt attributes to Chopin all sorts of feminine graces and beauties, he speaks of George Sand as an Amazon, a femme-heros, who is not afraid to expose her masculine countenance to all suns and winds.  Merimee says of George Sand that he has known her “maigre comme un clou et noire comme une taupe.”  Musset, after their first meeting, describes her, to whom he at a subsequent period alludes as femme a l’oeil sombre, thus:- -