262                              LIFE  OF  CHOPIN.

beloved one, but an intellectual and steadfast friend
in whose heart he found a home from which fate
could never banish him.

He began about this time to withdraw from large
assemblies, and spent most of his time in communion
with his muse, and among a small circle of friends.
Always fastidious about his surroundings, he was
even more so now ; but he always received his
intimate acquaintances with perfect good humour
and true Chopin amiability. Franz Liszt, Ferdinand
Hiller, and Baron von Stockhausen are, perhaps,
the only living representatives of those interesting
** soirees intimes" at Chopin's house in the Rue
Chaussee d'Antin.    Liszt writes :—                ,

*' His apartment was only lighted by some wax candles,
grouped r^und one of Pleyel's pianos, which he par¬
ticularly liked for their slightly veiled yet silvery sonorous¬
ness, and easy touch, permitting him to elicit tones
which one might think proceeded from one of those
harmonicas of which romantic Germany has preserved
the monopoly, and which were so ingeniously con¬
structed by its ancient masters from the union of crystal
and water.

*' As the corners of the room were left in obscurity, all
idea of limit was lost, so that there seemed no boundary
save the darkness of space. Some tall pi;ece of furni¬
ture, with its white cover, would reveal itself in the dim
light; an indistinct form, raising itself like a spectre to
listen to the sounds by which it had been evoked. The
light concentrated round the piano glided wave-like along
the   floo'r   mingling with  the  red  flashes of fire-light.