It was not to be expected that the coffee-house people should look upon him with disfavour.
Shelley paid Harriet frequent visits, both at Mrs.Fenning's school and at Mount Street, and soon began a correspondence with her, hoping, as he expressly stated in a letter of a later date, by converting her to his theories, to add his sister and her "to the list of the good, the disinterested and the free." At first she seems to have been horrified at the opinions he expressed; but in this case at least he did not overrate the powers of eloquence.

With all the earnestness of an evangelist, he preached his gospel of freethought or atheism, and had the satisfaction of forming his young pupil to his views.

He does not seem to have felt any serious inclination for Harriet; but in the absence of other friends, he gladly availed himself of her society.
Gradually she became more interesting to him, when he heard mysterious accounts of suffering at home and tyranny at school.

This was enough to rouse in Shelley the spirit of Quixotic championship, if not to sow the seeds of love.

What Harriet's ill-treatment really was, no one has been able to discover; yet she used to affirm that her life at this time was so irksome that she contemplated suicide.
During the summer of 1811, Shelley's movements were more than usually erratic, and his mind was in a state of extraordinary restlessness.