Life of Count Rumford. 561 



in pursuing an object is equal to her profound cunning and 

 wickedness in framing it. 



It is impossible to continue in this way, and we shall separate. 

 I only wish it was well over. It is probable I shall take a house 

 at' Auteuil, a very pleasant place, with the Seine on one side 

 and the Bois de Boulogne on the other, about a league from 

 Paris. I have seen a very handsome house there which I can 

 have, rather dear, but that matters little can I but find quiet. 

 It would be truly unfortunate, after the King of Bavaria's late 

 bounties joined to former ones, if I could not live more inde- 

 pendently than with this unfeeling, cunning, tyrannical woman. 



" Little do we know people at first sight ! Do you preserve 

 my letters ? You will perceive that I have given very different 

 accounts of this woman, for lady I cannot call her. 



" Now, my Dear Sally, as soon as I get settled, enjoying 

 again independence, I shall wish you to join me. 



" In the mean time believe me Your Affectionate Father." 



The Count bought the lease of his villa at Auteuil 

 in April, 1808. 



In a letter to which the Countess assigns the date of 

 Paris, November 29, 1808, her father describes in some 

 detail what will be her situation if she comes to live 

 with him. He says he dines in his own room, with 

 only the little German girl at the sideboard, eating her 

 dinner. Yet he says habit has made supportable what 

 he would have thought never could be. But few visit- 

 ors came into his apartments, and only two or three 

 were friends to him. 



" But," he writes, "alas! they can be of little assistance to 

 me. Peace dwells no longer in my habitation. I breakfast 

 quite alone in my apartment. Most of our visitors are my 

 wife's most determined adherents. Three evenings in the 

 week she has small tea-parties in her apartment, at which I 

 am sometimes present, but where I find little to amuse me. 

 This strange manner of living has not been adopted or con- 

 36 



