From Dr. Hiller I learnt also that Chopin went frequently to Baillot’s house.  It is very probable that he was present at the soirees which Mendelssohn describes with his usual charming ease in his Paris letters.  Baillot, though a man of sixty, still knew how to win the admiration of the best musicians by his fine, expressive violin-playing.  Chopin writes in a letter to Elsner that Baillot was very amiable towards him, and had promised to take part with him in a quintet of Beethoven’s at his concert; and in another letter Chopin calls Baillot “the rival of Paganini.”

As far as I can learn there was not much intercourse between Chopin and Rossini.  Of Kalkbrenner I shall have presently to speak at some length; first, however, I shall say a few words about some of the most interesting young artists whose acquaintance Chopin made.

One of these young artists was the famous violoncellist Franchomme, who told me that it was Hiller who first spoke to him of the young Pole and his unique compositions and playing.  Soon after this conversation, and not long after the new-comer’s arrival in Paris, Chopin, Liszt, Hiller, and Franchomme dined together.  When the party broke up, Chopin asked Franchomme what he was going to do.  Franchomme replied he had no particular engagement.  “Then,” said Chopin, “come with me and spend an hour or two at my lodgings.”  “Well,” was the answer of Franchomme, “but if I do you will have to play to me.”  Chopin had no objection, and the two walked off together.  Franchomme thought that Chopin was at that time staying at an hotel in the Rue Bergere.  Be this as it may, the young Pole played as he had promised, and the young Frenchman understood him at once.  This first meeting was the beginning of a life-long friendship, a friendship such as is rarely to be met with among the fashionable musicians of populous cities.

Mendelssohn, who came to Paris early in December, 1831, and stayed there till about the middle of April, 1832, associated a good deal with this set of striving artists.  The diminutive “Chopinetto,” which he makes use of in his letters to Hiller, indicates not only Chopin’s delicate constitution of body and mind and social amiability, but also Mendelssohn’s kindly feeling for him. [Footnote:  Chopin is not mentioned in any of Mendelssohn’s Paris letters.  But the following words may refer to him; for although Mendelssohn did not play at Chopin’s concert, there may have been some talk of his doing so.  January 14, 1832:  “Next week a Pole gives a concert; in it I have to play a piece for six performers with Kalkbrenner, Hiller and Co.”  Osborne related in his “Reminiscences of Frederick Chopin,” a paper read before a meeting of the Musical Association (April 5, 1880), that he, Chopin, Hiller, and Mendelssohn, during the latter’s stay in Paris, frequently dined together at a restaurant.  They ordered and paid the dinner in turn.  One evening at dessert they had a very animated conversation