But Fulton’s care, for the time, had sped away. He was surrounded by friends whose compliments upon his success must have been both welcome and pleasant. Helen Livingston’s granddaughter writes: “There were many distinguished and fine-looking men on board the _Clermont_, but my grandmother always described Robert Fulton as surpassing them all. ‘That son of a Pennsylvania farmer,’ she was wont to say, ‘was really a prince among men. He was as modest as he was great and as handsome as he was modest. His eyes were glorious with love and genius.’” A great personal happiness filled Fulton’s thought, beyond that of his success in the invention, for on the second day of the voyage, as the boat was about to cast anchor at the Clermont dock of the Chancellor, the latter, as a crowning touch of romance to the triumph of the voyage, announced the betrothal of his fair young cousin, Miss Harriet Livingston, to the inventor. In easy, graceful words he added that the name of Robert Fulton would descend to posterity as a benefactor to the world, for it was not impossible that, before the end of the century, vessels propelled by steam alone might make the voyage to Europe! The guests were too polite to laugh at this suggestion in the presence of the Chancellor and the inventor but, after several of the company had indulged in hidden smiles, John R. Livingston whispered to his cousin, “Bob has had many a bee in his bonnet before now, but this steam folly will prove the worst yet!” It has been reported that the consent of the Livingston family had been withheld from Fulton’s engagement until he could prove his invention a success. He had asked the Chancellor if he might aspire to the hand of his fair cousin and had received the reply: “Her father may object … but if Harriet does not object,—and she seems to have a world of good sense,—go ahead, and my best wishes and blessings go with you.” In the light of later events, it is hard to see why any objection could have been raised. Fulton, then forty-two years old, had made his way against great odds, and was a prominent man on both sides of the Atlantic. Harriet Livingston, a guest of honor on the historic trip up the Hudson, was the daughter of the Hon. Walter Livingston, Commissioner of the United States Treasury. The bride-elect had inherited beauty and talent. She played upon the harp and also sketched in pencil with delicacy and skill, an accomplishment which naturally appealed to Fulton’s artistic taste. Her father, Walter Livingston, son of the last Lord of the Manor of Livingston, had inherited as his share of the vast grant of land of 1715, which comprised over 160,000 acres, a tract of 28,000 acres, which he named “Tiviotdale.” Upon this great estate he had built an imposing mansion to which in later years Fulton and his wife paid many visits.