332 Life of Count Rumford. 



mas festivities, she says that she " met some of the first 

 people in the world," and the only language which she 

 can find adequate for describing the way in which Lady 

 Palmerston did the honors is by saying " that in all 

 probability there was nothing else to be found to match 

 it in the whole world." 



But the daughter's troubles in affairs of the heart 



o 



seem to have in some degree qualified her enjoyment 

 in England likewise, as she and her father were not in 

 accord about any tentative suitors. The following ac- 

 count has an air of candor, and engages a degree of 

 sympathy for Miss Sarah, now in her twenty-fifth year. 



" When my father was engaged in dining out where he could 

 not take me, Sir Charles Blagden, one of his most intimate 

 associates, would be invited to dine with me, en tete-d-tete, i. e. 

 in friendly chat. Sir Charles was a bachelor, not so old as 

 my father, but not young. After we went to Germany, he 

 wrote to my father to say that he liked me well enough to make 

 a wife of me, requesting that favor. 



" My father was ingenious. He did not wish it, yet how 

 affront such a friend ? His proceedings were thus: He would 

 often turn the conversation on this gentleman, relating anec- 

 dotes not of a nature to enchant a young person, without saying 

 that he had written about me. After which, the truth coming 

 out, I was desired to give my decision. I, of course, was 

 shocked that the thing should be mentioned. This did not 

 prevent all three of us being excellent friends when we met 

 again. Sir Charles told me one day he liked me better than 

 he did my father, which I thought a great compliment. My 

 father was not a bit jealous. He would say we were just alike. 

 We were all happy, had we but have known it. But we were 

 to separate, I returning to America ; my father going to 

 France, where he married Madame Lavoisier, who did not 

 wish a daughter-in-law, which kept me in America." 



