been called a little Athens.  Alexander Dumas was one of the many celebrities who lived there at one time or other; and Chopin had for neighbours the famous singer Pauline Viardot-Garcia, the distinguished pianoforte-professor Zimmermann, and the sculptor Dantan, from whose famous gallery of caricatures, or rather charges, the composer’s portrait was not absent.  Madame Marliani, the friend of George Sand and Chopin, who has already repeatedly been mentioned in this book, was the wife of Manuel Marliani, Spanish Consul in Paris, author, [footnote:  Especially notable among his political and historical publications in Spanish and French is:  “Histoire politique de l’Espagne moderne suivie d’un apercu sur les finances.” 2 vols. in 8vo (Paris, 1840).] politician, and subsequently senator.  Lenz says that Madame Marliani was a Spanish countess and a fine lady; and George Sand describes her as good-natured and active, endowed with a passionate head and maternal heart, but destined to be unhappy because she wished to make the reality of life yield to the ideal of her imagination and the exigences of her sensibility.

Some excerpts from a letter written by George Sand on November 12, 1842, to her friend Charles Duvernet, and a passage from Ma Vie will bring scene and actors vividly before us:—­

We also cultivate billiards; I have a pretty little table, which I hire for twenty francs a month, in my salon, and thanks to kind friendships we approach Nohant life as much as is possible in this melancholy Paris.  What makes things country-like also is that I live in the same square as the family Marliani, Chopin in the next pavilion, so that without leaving this large well-lighted and sanded Court d’Orleans, we run in the evening from one to another like good provincial neighbours.  We have even contrived to have only one pot [marmite], and eat all together at Madame Marliani’s, which is more economical and by far more lively than taking one’s meals at home.  It is a kind of phalanstery which amuses us, and where mutual liberty is much better guaranteed than in that of the Fourierists...

Solange is at a boarding-school, and comes out every Saturday to Monday morning.  Maurice has resumed the studio con furia, and I, I have resumed Consuelo like a dog that is being whipped; for I have idled on account of my removal and the fitting up of my apartments...

  Kind regards and shakes of the hand from Viardot, Chopin, and
  my children.

The passge [sic:  passage] from Ma Vie, which contains some repetitions along with a few additional touches, runs as follows:- -