against going into public life again, pleading as excuses his love of retirement and his advanced age, he, Mr. Donald, thought from what had passed between them in a long and serious conversation and from some remarks made by Mrs. Washington, that he might be induced to appear once more upon the stage of public life." The conflict between duty and inclination was a sharp one, during the months that intervened between the Congress of 1787 and the final ratification of the Constitution by a majority of the States, as intimations came to Washington from many sources that he would be the natural choice of a people who loved and trusted him beyond any man in the nation. This delay, and that occasioned by the tardy assembling of Congress in New York to hear the report of the presidential electors, were hailed by Washington as a reprieve; and as if to take advantage of the sweets of the family and country life that would not much longer be his, he made many neighborly visits with Mrs. Washington, pruned and grafted his trees, attended meetings of the Potomac Company, and hunted the fox in company with Colonel Washington, Colonel Humphreys, and Mr. Lear.

Among guests entertained at Mount Vernon in this interval were the Comte de Moustier,

his sister, Madame de Bréhan, and her son, who brought with them letters of introduction from Lafayette, and were accompanied by Mr. Victor du Pont. A number of ladies and gentlemen of the neighborhood were invited to dine with these distinguished guests, among them "Mr. Herbert and his Lady, Mr. Potts and his Lady, Mr. Ludwell Lee and his Lady and Miss Nancy Craik." The Comte de Moustier is described as a handsome and elegant man, while his sister, the Marchioness, who was small and somewhat eccentric in manners, was possessed of considerable talent with both pen and brush. Later, when the Washingtons were in New York, she completed a miniature of the General, begun from memory, which was so pleasing to him that he paid it the high compliment of saying that it was "exceedingly like the original." Madame de Bréhan also executed a portrait in profile of Nelly Custis, in which the graceful, noble lines of the childish head give promise of the great beauty for which she was afterwards distinguished.

This Virginia home, with its simplicity, unbounded hospitality, and cheerful industry, was a revelation to the French lady; and the relations between the Washingtons and their slaves, unlike anything she had seen, seemed to the enthusiastic traveller a survival of the

patriarchal dispensation of an older time. She never wearied of following Mrs. Washington upon her round of duties, marking with deep interest the attention given by her hostess to domestic affairs and her care in training and directing her servants. A dream of Arcadian simplicity and happiness it seemed to one accustomed to the artificial life of the French court, - a dream soon to be broken by the official communication brought to Mount Vernon, in April, 1789, by Mr. Charles Thompson, the venerable Secretary of Congress.

IX

LIFE IN NEW YORK

THE acceptance of the honors and duties of the chief executive office in the new Republic necessitated for Washington the relinquishing of much that was dear to him. The active, useful life of a country gentleman was especially suited to his tastes, with its experiments in farming or in rearing stock, its days spent in the saddle, superintending the work of fencing and ditching or the laying out of roads, varied by an occasional dinner with a neighbor or by the entertaining of guests at home, and we can well believe that he spoke from his heart when he wrote confidentially to General Knox in April, 1789:

"My movements to the chair of government will be accompanied by feelings not unlike those of a culprit, who is going to the place of his execution; so unwilling am I, in the evening of a life nearly consumed in public cares, to quit a peaceful abode for an ocean of difficulties, without that competency of political skill, abilities, and inclination, which are necessary to manage the helm."

To Mrs. Washington leaving Mount Vernon at this time meant the severing of many cherished family ties. The two younger grandchildren, Eleanor Parke Custis and her brother George Washington, accompanied her to New York, but her elder granddaughters, Martha and Elizabeth, who were in the habit of spending weeks with her at Mount Vernon, remained with their mother at Abingdon. In a letter written to a congenial friend, Mrs. Washington gives full expression to her sentiments upon foregoing the tranquil joys of her home for the pleasures, fatigues, and excitements of public life:

"I little thought when the war was finished that any Circumstances could possibly happen which would call the General into public life again. I had anticipated that, from that Moment, we should be suffered to grow old together, in solitude and tranquillity. That was the first and dearest wish of my heart. I will not, however, contemplate with too much regret disappointments that were inevitable; though his feelings and my own were in perfect unison with respect to our predilections for private life, yet I Cannot blame him for having acted according to his ideas of duty in obeying the voice of his Country. It is owing to the Kindness of our numerous friends, in all quarters, that my new and unwished for situation is not, indeed, a burden to me. When I was