So he invites his nephew, Lawrence Lewis, to spend as much time as he can at Mount Vernon while he himself and Mrs.Washington go to bed early, "soon after candle light." Lewis accepted the invitation all the more willingly because he found at the mansion Nelly Custis, a pretty and sprightly young lady with whom he promptly fell in love and married later.

Nelly and her brother George had been adopted by Washington and brought up in the family.

She was his particular pet.

Like other mature men he found the boys of the younger generation somewhat embarrassing.

I suppose they felt, as well they might, a great and awful gulf yawning between them.