characterises his relation to the doctor unequivocally in the following statement:—­“Malfatti really loves me, and I am not a little proud of it.”  Indeed, the doctor seems to have been a true friend, ready with act and counsel.  He aided him with his influence in various ways; thus, for instance, we read that he promised to introduce him to Madame Tatyszczew, the wife of the Russian Ambassador, and to Baron Dunoi, the president of the musical society, whom Chopin thought a very useful personage to know.  At Malfatti’s he made also the acquaintance of some artists whom he would, perhaps, have had no opportunity of meeting elsewhere.  One of these was the celebrated tenor Wild.  He came to Malfatti’s in the afternoon of Christmas-day, and Chopin, who had been dining there, says:  “I accompanied by heart the aria from Othello, which he sang in a masterly style.  Wild and Miss Heinefetter are the ornaments of the Court Opera.”  Of a celebration of Malfatti’s name-day Chopin gives the following graphic account in a letter to his parents, dated June 25, 1831:- -

Mechetti, who wished to surprise him [Malfatti], persuaded the Misses Emmering and Lutzer, and the Messrs. Wild, Cicimara, and your Frederick to perform some music at the honoured man’s house; almost from beginning to end the performance was deserving of the predicate “parfait.”  I never heard the quartet from Moses better sung; but Miss Gladkowska sang “O quante lagrime” at my farewell concert at Warsaw with much more expression.  Wild was in excellent voice, and I acted in a way as Capellmeister.

To this he adds the note:—­

Cicimara said there was nobody in Vienna who accompanied so well as I. And I thought, “Of that I have been long convinced.”  A considerable number of people stood on the terrace of the house and listened to our concert.  The moon shone with wondrous beauty, the fountains rose like columns of pearls, the air was filled with the fragrance of the orangery; in short, it was an enchanting night, and the surroundings were magnificent!  And now I will describe to you the drawing-room in which we were.  High windows, open from top to bottom, look out upon the terrace, from which one has a splendid view of the whole of Vienna.  The walls are hung with large mirrors; the lights were faint:  but so much the greater was the effect of the moonlight which streamed through the windows.  The cabinet to the left of the drawing- room and adjoining it gives, on account of its large dimensions, an imposing aspect to the whole apartment.  The ingenuousness and courtesy of the host, the elegant and genial society, the generally-prevailing joviality, and the excellent supper, kept us long together.

Here Chopin is seen at his best as a letter writer; it would be difficult to find other passages of equal excellence.  For, although we meet frequently enough with isolated pretty bits, there is not one single letter which, from beginning to end, as a whole as well as in its parts, has the perfection and charm of Mendelssohn’s letters.