Dufour came to notice when her father negotiated with the tenor Michael Kelly and the singer and actress Anna Maria Crouch that they would give her lessons in acting and singing for a share of her salary.
She had made her debut at the King's Theatre, Haymarket in 1796 and went on that year to sing at the Pantheon in Oxford Street and in concerts organised by the German impresario Johann Peter Salomon.
Her parents broke some agreements to take up a lucrative contract at Drury Lane where she sang well but in was noted that she was quite short and stout and she had poor acting skills.
Her 1803 novel was "Aurora, or, The Mysterious Beauty" which was not original but based on a French work by J. J. M. Duperche.
The subscription appeal attracted donations from chess enthusiasts in England and France including King Louis-Philippe.