Gratifying as the praise of the press no doubt was to Chopin, it became a matter of small account when he thought of his friend’s approving sympathy.  “One look from you after the concert would have been worth more to me than all the laudations of the critics here.”  The concerts, however, brought with them annoyances as well as pleasures.  While one paper pointed out Chopin’s strongly-marked originality, another advised him to hear Rossini, but not to imitate him.  Dobrzynski, who expected that his Symphony would be placed on one of the programmes, was angry with Chopin for not doing so; a lady acquaintance took it amiss that a box had not been reserved for her, and so on.  What troubled our friend most of all, and put him quite out of spirits, was the publication of the sonnet and of the mazurkas; he was afraid that his enemies would not let this opportunity pass, and attack and ridicule him.  “I will no longer read what people may now write about me,” he bursts out in a fit of lachrymose querulousness.  Although pressed from many sides to give a third concert, Chopin decided to postpone it till shortly before his departure, which, however, was farther off than he imagined.  Nevertheless, he had already made up his mind what to play—­namely, the new Concerto (some parts of which had yet to be composed) and, by desire, the Fantasia and the Variations.

CHAPTER X.

1829-1830.

Music in the Warsaw salons.—­More about Chopin’s caution.—­
Musical visitors to the polish capital:  Worlitzer, Mdlle.  De
Belleville, Mdlle.  Sontag, &c.—­Some of Chopin’s artistic and
other doings; visit to Poturzyn.—­His love for Constantia
Gladkowska.—­Intended and frequently-postponed departure for
abroad; irresolution.—­The E minor concerto and his third concert
in Warsaw.—­Departs at last.

After the turmoil and agitation of the concerts, Chopin resumed the even tenor of his Warsaw life, that is to say, played, composed, and went to parties.  Of the latter we get some glimpses in his letters, and they raise in us the suspicion that the salons of Warsaw were not overzealous in the cultivation of the classics.  First we have a grand musical soiree at the house of General Filipeus, [F-ootnote:  Or Philippeus] the intendant of the Court of the Grand Duke Constantine.  There the Swan of Pesaro was evidently in the ascendant, at any rate, a duet from “Semiramide” and a buffo duet from “Il Turco in Italia” (in this Soliva took a part and Chopin accompanied) were the only items of the