Anyhow she [George Sand] has a very pretty house. From the entrance one proceeds straight to her large drawing-room with its billiard-table. On the mantelpiece stand the things a smoker requires and she is the first to light up her cigar. It is here that she prefers to meet her literary friends, among others Heinrich Heine, who is a most eager listener when Chopin allows himself to be led to the piano in a little side-salon. After letting his hands wander dreamily over the keys for a few moments he suddenly wakes up, and then his playing is stupefying and unbelievably moving in the almost complete darkness his varied inspirations now lull us, now electrify us, or throw us into the darkest recesses of our own thoughts. << less