George Sand, although one of the cleverest of the literary portrayers who have tried their hand at Chopin, cannot be regarded as one of the most impartial; but it must be admitted that in describing her deserted lover as un homme du monde par excellence, non pas du monde trop officiel, trop nombreux, she says what is confirmed by all who have known him, by his friends, foes, and those that are neither.  Aristocratic society, with which he was acquainted from his earliest childhood, had always a great charm for him.  When at the beginning of 1833, a little more than two years after his arrival in Paris, he informed his friend Dziewanowski that he moved in the highest society—­among ambassadors, princes, and ministers—­it is impossible not to see that the fact gives him much satisfaction.  Without going so far as to say with a great contemporary of Chopin, Stephen Heller, that the higher you go in society the greater is the ignorance you find, I think that little if any good for either heart or mind can come from intercourse with that section of the people which proudly styles itself “society” (le monde).  Many individuals that belong to it possess, no doubt, true nobility, wisdom, and learning, nay, even the majority may possess one or the other or all of them in some degree, but these qualities are so out of keeping with the prevailing frivolity that few have the moral courage to show their better nature.  If Chopin imagined that he was fully understood as an artist by society, he was sadly mistaken.  Liszt and Heller certainly held that he was not fully understood, and they did not merely surmise or speak from hearsay, for neither of them was a stranger in that quarter, although the latter avoided it as much as possible.  What society could and did appreciate in Chopin was his virtuosity, his elegance, and his delicacy.  It is not my intention to attempt an enumeration of Chopin’s aristocratic friends and acquaintances, but in the dedications of his works the curious will find the most important of them.  There, then, we read the names of the Princess Czartoryska, Countess Plater, Countess Potocka, Princesse de Beauvau, Countess Appony, Countess Esterhazy, Comte and Comtesse de Perthuis, Baroness Bronicka, Princess Czernicheff, Princess Souzzo, Countess Mostowska, Countess Czosnowska, Comtesse de Flahault, Baroness von Billing, Baron and Baroness von Stockhausen, Countess von Lobau, Mdlle. de Noailles, &c.  And in addition to these we have representatives of the aristocracy of wealth, Madame C. de Rothschild foremost amongst them.  Whether the banker Leo with whom and his family Chopin was on very friendly terms may be mentioned in this connection, I do not know.  But we must remember that round many of the above names cluster large families.  The names of the sisters Countess Potocka and Princesse de Beauvau call up at once that of their mother, Countess Komar.  Many of these here enumerated are repeatedly mentioned in the course of this book, some will receive particular attention in the next chapter.  Now we will try to get a glimpse of Chopin in society.