518 Life of Count Rumford. 



began. From the tenor of his letters we are to infer 

 some of the contents of hers to him. From this it 

 would appear, that, after he had yielded any expectations 

 or wishes of his own to make her his wife, she required 

 of him the somewhat exacting and embarrassing respon- 

 sibility of advising her as between various suitors and 

 available gentlemen, whose qualities and pretensions 

 she made known to her former admirer. 



Sir Charles being a near neighbor of the Count, as 

 he had lodgings at No. 51 Brompton Row, writes to 

 the Countess under date of June 9, 1800, to congratu- 

 late her on her safe arrival in America. He begins in 

 this letter to assume the character of an adviser and 

 counsellor, sometimes a very frank and even severely 

 rebuking one, which, as we shall see, led him gradu- 

 ally to take upon himself, apparently with the full toler- 

 ance of the Countess, the authority of a father, strangely 

 qualifying the tone of a lover. It seems that Sir Charles 

 had investments in the American funds, and wished to 

 purchase more. He proposes to the Countess that she 

 shall collect his dividends for him, and intimates his 

 intention to go to the United States, at least as a vis- 

 itor, as he had once already been. The following is an 

 extract. 



" From a conviction that your natural discernment and the 

 openness with which I always spoke and acted before you and 

 the Count had made you exactly acquainted with my character 

 and turn of mind, I was induced to request that you would 

 frankly tell me, after you had resided a little time in America, 

 whether my removal from this country to that would, in your 

 opinion, contribute to mv happiness. Would you advise me, as 

 a friend, to settle in America ? or to make a tour in that coun- 

 try ? or not to go thither at all ? You have often heard me 

 mention Rhode Island as by far the healthiest and pleasantest 



