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Indiana University Studies 
autumn of 1793, when the Brissotins had been driven from 
power. At first, when Imlay began his business operations, 
his object, if we may believe Mary’s letter, was to gain a 
thousand pounds, which would have been “sufficient to have 
procured a farm in America”.®^ 
The chronology and geography of both Imlay and Mary 
for the period beginning with the autumn of 1793 and extend- 
ing to April, 1796, are to be ascertained with considerable 
accuracy from the correspondence and from Godwin’s Me- 
moirs. In the early autumn, not long after the liaison was 
made a matter of public knowledge by their removal to the 
same house in Paris,®- Imlay was off alone to Havre on busi- 
ness, while Mary, tho protesting the separation, remained in 
Paris until January or February, 1794. From the latter 
date they were together at Havre — Imlay was absent for 
only a small part of this time — until the end of the summer, 
and it was here that Mary gave birth to a daughter, Fanny. 
In September, however, Imlay, sending Mary back to Paris, 
set out for London — on business, as he assured his already 
much-perplexed wife. And tho he had promised her that he 
would return to Paris within a couple of months, he continued 
to remain in London until, apparently influenced by the con- 
sideration that she might be of great assistance to him in 
arranging a settlement of certain business difficulties in Nor- 
way, Sweden, and Denmark, he urgently requested her to 
hasten to London, where she joined him in April, 1795. Ac- 
cording to a report which is repeated by Godwin, Imlay had 
by this time formed a connection with a young actress from 
a strolling company of players. At all events, a month, 
marked by bitter recriminations and, on Mary’s part, by an 
abortive attempt at suicide, elapsed before she began her 
voyage to the Scandinavian countries, pleased with the hope 
that by obliging him in this way she might regain his affec- 
tion. Her faithful service in his interest during her long 
absence in the North, did not, however, prevent the crisis in 
their relations. When she returned to London in the follow- 
ing October, he provided a lodging for her, but otherwise neg- 
lected her. At length, learning from a servant that Imlay 
February 10, 1795 (Posthumous Works, III, 108). 
As a means ol pi’otection to Mary, who, as a British subject, was now in danger 
of being- thrown into a French prison, it was arranged that she should be registered at 
the American embassy as Imlay’s wife (Memoirs, p, 108). 
