he less is said upon the subject, particularly by your
sister's friends, the more prudent it will be until the subject develops
itself more."

Other suitors appeared at that time, and the assaults made upon the
young lady's heart seem to have given Washington and his wife much
anxiety. "I was young and romantic then," she said to a lady, from whose
lips Mr. Irving has quoted[124]--"I was young and romantic then, and
fond of wandering alone by moonlight in the woods of Mount Vernon.
Grandmamma thought it wrong and unsafe, and scolded and coaxed me into a
promise that I would not wander in the woods again _unaccompanied_. But
I was missing one evening, and was brought home from the interdicted
woods to the drawing-room, where the general was walking up and down
with his hands behind him, as was his wont. Grandmamma, seated in her
great arm-chair, opened a severe reproof."

"Poor Miss Nelly," says Mr. Irving, "was reminded of her promise, and
taxed with her delinquency. She knew that she had done wrong, admitted
her fault, and essayed no excuse; but, when there was a slight pause,
moved to retire from the room. She was just shutting the door, when she
overheard the general attempting, in a low voice, to intercede in her
behalf. 'My dear,' observed he, 'I would say no more: perhaps she was
not alone.'

"His intercession stopped Miss Nelly in her retreat. She reopened the
door, and advanced up to the general with a firm step. 'Sir,' said she,
'you brought me up to speak the truth; and when I told grandmamma I was
alone, I hope you believed _I was alone_.'

"The general made one of his most magnanimous bows. 'My child,' replied
he, 'I beg your pardon.'"

As we shall observe presently, Lawrence Lewis triumphed in his suit over
all competitors, and the beautiful Nelly Custis became his bride.

Without the least suspicion that his sweet dream of repose in the bosom
of his family, amid the quiet scenes of rural life, would ever be
disturbed while he lived, Washington now applied himself to the repairs
of his buildings, and the general improvement of his estate. "At the age
of sixty-five," he wrote to the earl of Radnor, "I am now recommencing
my agricultural and rural pursuits, which were always more congenial to
my temper and disposition than the noise and bustle of public
employments; notwithstanding so small a portion of my life has been
engaged in the former."

To the Reverend William Gordon he wrote: "Rural employmen