Life of Count Rumford. 555 



and of the gentlemen who address you, to judge what it would 

 be best for you to do. After the adventure of the gentleman 

 who married so unexpectedly had drawn upon you the public 

 attention, I am sorry that you were placed in so conspicuous a 

 situation at Middletown, and that you appeared to take so much 

 delight in the attentions of another gentleman, whom you own 

 you had no intention to marry. That conduct which is at- 

 tributed only to exuberance of. spirits and want of experience 

 under twenty years of age is thought after that period to indi- 

 cate levity ; and your character ought now to be remarked for 

 steadiness, prudence, and good sense. No well-judging friend 

 would advise you to marry a man whom you cannot love. But 

 it is equally dangerous to take a man who is otherwise unsuita- 

 ble, merely because he happens under particular circumstances 

 to have flattered your imagination. I am aware how awkward 

 your situation is, and sincerely wish it were changed, either 

 by marriage or by a call from your father to live with him. 

 Whether he has given or ever will give you such a call, I 

 neither know nor can guess ; but I particularly recommend it 

 to you never to take any decisive step without his previous 

 approbation." 



The variety of matters touched upon by Sarah, inter- 

 spersed with fragments of what she saw fit to copy from 

 her father's letters, will relieve the rehearsal from the 

 character of a mere repetition of the same details. 



We must call her before us, during the interval be- 

 tween her first two visits to Europe, as a person attract- 

 ing considerable notice and regard. On her father's 

 account, independently of any attractions of her own, 

 which were in no degree remarkable, she would be 

 sure to receive attention and cordial hospitality from 

 his many friends in America. She appears not to have 

 remained long in any one place, but to have led rather 

 an unsettled and aimless life, which evidently called 

 forth from her father frequent remonstrances, with good 



