Fox was careful that his niece, Lady Sarah, should stay at Holland House so long as the King was in town, but discreetly himself went from time to time to his house at Kingsgate in the Isle of Thanet, very wisely realizing that the strongest card in his hand was the charm of the young girl. "Though Fox went himself to bathe in the sea, and possibly even to disguise his intrigues," Walpole wrote in 1761, "he left Lady Sarah at Holland House, where she appeared in a field close to the great road (where the King passed on horseback) in a fancy habit making hay." The course of true love ran smoothly enough for a while. The King was young and handsome, and Lady Sarah, not averse to be a queen, received his overtures graciously. So far, indeed, had the affair progressed early in 1761, that the King confided his passion to Lady Sarah's friend, Lady Susan Fox Strangways,[119] with whom he had the following guarded conversation: "You are going into Somersetshire; when do you return?" "Not before winter, sir, or I don't know how soon in winter." "Is there nothing will bring you back to town before winter?" "I don't know of anything." "Would you not like to see a Coronation?" "Yes, sir. I hope I should come to see that." "I hear it's very popular my having put it off.... Won't it be a much finer sight when there is a Queen?" "To be sure, sir." "I have had a great many applications from abroad, but I don't like them. I have had none at home: I should like that better.... What do you think of your friend? You know who I mean; don't you think her fittest?" "Think, sir?" "I think none so fit."[120] [119] Eldest daughter of Stephen, first Earl of Ilchester, the eldest brother of Henry Fox. Lady Susan eloped in 1764 with William O'Brien, the actor. [120] Lord Holland's _Memoir_ in _The Life and Letters of Lady Sarah Lennox_. According to Thomas Pitt, Lady Susan was much embarrassed when the King said, "I have had no applications at home: I should like that better," as, for an instant, she thought he meant her, but her agitation was dissipated when he continued, "I mean your friend, Lady Sarah Lennox. Tell her so, and let me have her answer the next Drawing-room day."[121] Fox, however, makes no allusion to this, and merely records that the King crossed over to Lady Sarah, and told her to ask her friend what he had been saying. [121] _Grenville Papers._