for although he could have as many pupils as he wished, he never taught more than five hours a day, and lived every year for several months in the country.  And then there is one other point to be taken into consideration:  he often gave his lessons gratis.  From Madame Rubio I learned that on one occasion when she had placed the money for a series of lessons on the mantel-piece, the master declined to take any of it, with the exception of a 20- franc piece, for which sum he put her name down on a subscription list for poor Poles.  Lindsay Sloper, too, told me that Chopin declined payment for the lessons he gave him.

Chopin’s business experiences were not, for the most part, of a pleasant nature; this is shown as much by the facts he mentions in his letters as by the distrust with which he speaks of the publishers.  Here are some more particulars on the same subject.  Gutmann says that Chopin on his return from Majorca asked Schlesinger for better terms.  But the publisher, whilst professing the highest opinion of the composer’s merit, regretted that the sale of the compositions was not such as to allow him to pay more than he had hitherto done. [Footnote:  Chopin’s letters show that Gutmann’s statement is correct.  Troupenas was Chopin’s publisher for some time after his return from Majorca.] Stephen Heller remembered hearing that Breitkopf and Hartel, of Leipzig, wrote to their Paris agent informing him that they would go on publishing Chopin’s compositions, although, considering their by no means large sale, the terms at which they got them were too high.  Ed. Wolff related to me that one day he drove with his countryman to the publisher Troupenas, to whom Chopin wished to sell his Sonata (probably the one in B flat minor).  When after his negotiations with the publisher Chopin was seated again in the carriage, he said in Polish:  “The pig, he offered me 200 francs for my Sonata!” Chopin’s relations with England were even less satisfactory.  At a concert at which Filtsch played, Chopin introduced Stephen Heller to Wessel or to a representative ofthat firm, but afterwards remarked:  “You won’t find them pleasant to deal with.”  Chopin at any rate did not find them pleasant to deal with.  Hearing that Gutmann was going to London he asked his pupil to call at Wessel’s and try to renew the contract which had expired.  The publisher on being applied to answered that not only would he not renew the contract, but that he would not even print Chopin’s compositions if he got them for nothing.  Among the pieces offered was the Berceuse.  With regard to this story of Gutmann’s it has, however, to be stated that, though it may have some foundation of fact, it is not true as he told it; for Wessel certainly had published the Berceuse by June 26, 1845, and also published in the course of time the five following works.  Then, however, the connection was broken off by Wessel.  Chopin’s grumblings at his English publisher brings before us only one side of the question.