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she might be able to charm Sir William into giving her a big present toward a dowry. She was acutely annoyed to find she had a rival—and a woman of dubious reputation at that. She teased her uncle mercilessly about his fascination with "Greville's mistress."5 When he began to enquire about having his own portrait of Emma made to adorn his Naples home, it was the last straw. Her uncle, she declared, was neglecting his friends in London in his frenzy to put the city's artists into competition, "painting this Woman's picture for him to take to Naples." Sir William foisted on her the job of negotiating the sale of his vase to the duchess. To her credit, she successfully sold the vase (now in the British Museum). Hopefully, her uncle rewarded her with a present for her efforts.

Forgetting his debts, Sir William commissioned Joshua Reynolds to paint her as a bacchante, hoping that the great artist would produce a portrait that outshone Romney's. Sir Joshua's Bacchante was, however, a failure. Although he captured some of her infectious gaiety and replicated the exquisite detail of her gold-trimmed cashmere shawl, the fussy drapery and hair confused the lines, the face was too wide, and the finger in the mouth—a familiar erotic posture used for courtesans and actresses such as Frances Abington—made her look simpering. Sir William paid the price of thirty guineas and then in the spring of 1784 commissioned Romney to paint her as another bacchante, a more daring full-length image in which the viewer gains a side view of Emma's bosom. She wears a peach-pink dress that sets off her complexion, and he captures her from the same side as Sensibility, but she is running with a dog. Slim and vibrant, she smiles with delight at the viewer, her hair and dress streaming behind her. Bacchantes, according to a contemporary bestseller on music history, participated at orgies nearly naked, dancing wildly, their hair disheveled.6 No respectable woman would consent to be portrayed as a nymph in the throes of desire. Emma allowed Sir William to commission a painting of her in the most scandalous pose because she desperately desired his good opinion.

Sir William was utterly infatuated with Emma, but he considered his flirtation with her to be no more than a fun interlude, a mere holiday romance. Predicting that Greville would soon grow bored and cast her off, he did not expect to see her again after he left England.

"If I was the greatest laidy in the world I should not be happy from you," Emma wrote to Greville in 1784. Although they were often bickering, she blamed the strains in the relationship on his job at the Treasury and his uncertainty about Sir William's plans. Finally, after delaying it for a year, Sir William and Greville set off to survey the Welsh estates. Greville did not trust Emma alone in London, and he dispatched her to Cheshire with her mother to collect little Emma and then travel on to spend the summer by the sea at Abergele.

Emma met up with her daughter, now age one, at her grandmother's house in Hawarden. Mother and daughter began to build a relationship. She also decided Abergele was too far away and “uncumfortable” and set off instead for the glamorous sea resort of Parkgate, on the west coast of England. Only a few miles from Emma's birthplace, Parkgate was a world away from grimy Ness. Visitors admired the handsome promenade of white and red houses and flocked to the elegant entertainments. More than thirty hotels graced the long seafront, and small alleys were named after roads such as Drury Lane in London to attract the urban rich. Perched on the promenade were a theater, a billiard room, several coffee shops and restaurants, a racecourse, and assembly rooms for dancing, tea drinking, and card parties. Since it was the main port for passenger boats to Ireland, most of the actors and aristocrats traveling there spent a couple of days in the town. England's elite partied in Parkgate, most recently Mrs. Fitzherbert, new wife of the Prince of Wales. The visit of sweet-natured Maria, a Catholic widow and the most controversial