] ... the part about the young lady's father taking her away from Bath so she wouldn't have to appear in court, but did "infatuated" mean then what it does now, and if so, who was Mrs.Leigh Perrott infatuated with? ;-)

The unfortunate woman wasn't actually poor was she? Has there ever been any speculations that she might have suffered from kleptomania? So could infatuated in this connection mean blinded by mad unreasonable desire to have a thing without paying for it?