"I can govern men," he would say, "but I cannot govern boys."[1] With Nelly Custis, however, he found it easy to be chums.

No one can forget the mock-serious letter in which he wrote to her in regard to becoming engaged and gave her advice about falling in love.

The letter is unexpected and yet it bears every mark of sincerity and reveals a genuine vein in his nature.

We must always think of Nelly as one of the refreshments of his older life and as one of its great delights.

He considered himself an old man now.
His hair no longer needed powder; years and cares had made it white.
He spoke of himself without affectation as a very old man, and apparently he often thought, as he was engaged in some work, "this is the last time I shall do this." He seems to have taken it for granted that he was not to live long; but this neither slackened his industry nor made him gloomy.