The young people under the bed thereupon fell to giggling until finally she became aware of their presence.

Much offended, or at least pretending to be, she ordered them from the room.

They retired with such precipitancy that one of them fell upon the stairway and broke her arm.
Another story is to the effect that one morning Nelly Custis, Miss Dandridge and some other girls who were visiting Nelly came down to breakfast dressed dishabille and with their hair done up in curl papers.
Mrs.Washington did not rebuke them and the meal proceeded normally until the announcement was made that some French officers of rank and young Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, who was interested in Miss Custis, had driven up outside, whereupon the foolish virgins sprang up to leave the room in order to make more conventional toilets.

But Mrs.Washington forbade their doing so, declaring that what was good enough for General Washington was good enough for any guest of his.
She spoiled George Washington Custis as she had his father, but was more severe with Eleanor or Nelly.

Washington bought the girl a fine imported harpsichord, which cost a thousand dollars and which is still to be seen at Mount Vernon, and the grandmother made Nelly practise upon it four or five hours a day.