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By Root 1340 0

wrote to Sir William from his King's Mews house, keeping Emma ignorant about his plans. He started by grumbling about his debts, averring he had been cutting himself down to the barest necessities, "reducing every expence to enable me to have enough to exist on, and pay the interest on my debt." At the same time, he praised Emma, extolling how she was "much improved" now that she had "none of the bad habits which giddiness and inexperience encouraged, and which bad choice of company introduced." Now, he boasted, she "is naturally elegant, & fits herself easily to any situation." He declared her the type of woman to stick to one man, and he was "sure she is attached to me or she would not have refused the offers which I know have been great."

Emma may have guessed that he was considering marriage, but she would not have expected it to alter her position, since many men retained their mistresses after tying the knot. Still unhappy about her separation from her daughter, she threw herself into working with Romney and sat for him fourteen times from early January to the beginning of March 1786. She was portrayed as a bacchante, as Leda loving her swan, and as allegorical embodiments of Nature, all typical poses of a mistress. Romney had an inkling of Greville's plans to dispose of her, and he rushed to make as many studies of her as possible. When he made a copy of the Bacchante for himself, he removed the gauze from the bosom so her breast is half exposed. It became one of his most popular paintings, and when it finally left for Naples, there was a clamor of complaint that it had not been engraved.

Despite Greville's efforts, Sir William seemed to be oblivious to what he wanted. In March, Greville began to lay it on with a trowel. "I wish the tea-maker of Edgware Row was yours," he wrote, outrageously promising that Sir William would find this perfect "modern piece of virtu… tolerable and even comforting." He assured his uncle that he could dispense with her whenever he wished. If Emma thought herself a burden to him, she would "give up the connexion" and not "even accept a farthing for future assistance." He even told Sir William a "clean and comfortable woman" would suit him, adding, shockingly, that the most sensible thing for a man of such advanced age "would be to buy Love ready made." Greville added a dash of emotional blackmail by claiming that he was so poor he would probably "be unable to provide for her at all," leaving her destitute, conjuring the ludicrous scenario of Emma in a convent. Determined to convince his uncle, he posted a torrent of pleas, promises, and manipulations. In letter after letter, he griped about his debts, implied that his uncle would not find anyone else, appealed to his pity for her, and boasted he had reformed Emma into the perfect mistress, cheap, loyal, and sexually compliant. Never once did he mention Emma's feelings or suggest she might miss her daughter.

Sir William considered himself young and rather handsome, and he took exception to his nephew's characterization of him as too old to win a new wife. But, long in the habit of not saying what he meant, he shied away from an outright refusal. "I wou'd take her most readily," he replied, adding "I really love her and think better of her than of any one in her situation." However, although "her exquisite beauty had frequently its effects on me," he thought "there is a great difference between her being with you or me, for she really loves you when she cou'd only esteem and suffer me—I see so many difficulties in her coming here." English ladies and the royal family would be offended by her presence, and "it would be fine fun for the young English Travellers to endeavour to cuckold the old Gentleman their Ambassador." He suggested that Emma should be sent to the country, where he would provide for her until his nephew could take over again after his marriage.4 Greville refused: if Emma was in England, she would harass him with requests, embarrass him with showy behavior in public places, and probably continue posing for Romney Few families