Chopin embraces you a thousand times.  He is always qui, qui, qui, me, me, me.  Rollinat smokes like a steam-boat.  Solange has been good for two or three days, but yesterday she had a fit of temper [acces de fureur].  It is the Rebouls, the English neighbours, people and dogs, who turn her head.

In the summer of 1840 George Sand did not go to Nohant, and Chopin seems to have passed most of, if not all, the time in Paris.  From a letter addressed to her half-brother, we learn that the reason of her staying away from her country-seat was a wish to economise:—­

If you will guarantee my being able to pass the summer at Nohant for 4,000 francs, I will go.  But I have never been there without spending 1,500 francs per month, and as I do not spend here the half of this, it is neither the love of work, nor that of spending, nor that of glory, which makes me stay...

George Sand’s fits of economy never lasted very long.  At any rate, in the summer of 1841 we find her again at Nohant.  But as it is my intention to treat of Chopin’s domestic life at Nohant and in Paris with some fulness in special chapters, I shall now turn to his artistic doings.

In 1839 there appeared only one work by Chopin, Op. 28, the “Preludes,” but in the two following years as many as sixteen—­ namely, Op. 35-50.  Here is an enumeration of these compositions, with the dates of publication and the dedications.

[Footnote:  Both the absence of dedications in the case of some compositions, and the persons to whom others are dedicated, have a biographical significance.  They tell us of the composer’s absence from Paris and aristocratic society, and his return to them.]

The “Vingt-quatre Preludes,” Op. 28, published in September, 1839, have a twofold dedication, the French and English editions being dedicated a son ami Pleyel, and the German to Mr. J. C. Kessler.  The publications of 1840 are:  in May—­Op. 35, “Sonate” (B flat minor); Op. 36, “Deuxieme Impromptu” (F sharp minor); Op. 37, “Deux Nocturnes” (G minor and G major); in July—­Op. 42, “Valse” (A flat major); in September—­Op. 38, “Deuxieme Ballade” (F major), dedicated to Mr. R. Schumann; in October—­Op. 39, “Troisieme Scherzo” (C sharp minor), dedicated to Mr. A. Gutmann; in November—­Op. 40, “Deux Polonaises” (A major and C minor), dedicated to Mr. J. Fontana; and in December—­Op. 41, “Quatre Mazurkas” (C sharp and E minor, B and A flat major), dedicated to E. Witwicki.  Those of 1841 are:  in October—­Op. 43, “Tarantelle” (A flat major), without any dedication; and in November—­Op. 44, “Polonaise” (F sharp minor), dedicated to Madame la Princesse Charles de Beauvau; Op. 45, “Prelude” (C sharp minor), dedicated to Madame la Princesse Elizabeth Czernicheff; Op. 46, “Allegro de Concert” (A major), dedicated to Mdlle.  F. Muller; Op. 47, “Troisieme Ballade” (A flat major), dedicated to Mdlle.  P. de Noailles; Op. 48, “Deux Nocturnes” (C minor and F sharp minor), dedicated to Mdlle.  L. Duperre; Op. 49, “Fantaisie” (F minor), dedicated to Madame la Princesse C. de Souzzo; and Op. 50, “Trois Mazurkas” (G and A flat major, and C sharp minor), dedicated to Mr. Leon Smitkowski.