She seems to have been somewhat fond of ceremony and to have had a considerable sense of personal dignity.  A daughter of Augustine Washington, who when twelve years of age spent several weeks at Mount Vernon, related when an old woman that every morning precisely at eleven o’clock the mistress of the mansion expected her company to assemble in the drawing-room, where she greeted them with much formality and kept them an hour on their good behavior.  When the clock struck twelve she would rise and ascend to her chamber, returning thence precisely at one, followed by a black servant carrying an immense bowl of punch, from which the guests were expected to partake before dinner.  Some of the younger girls became curious to discover why her “Ladyship” retired so invariably to her room, so they slipped out from where she was entertaining their mothers, crept upstairs and hid under her bed.  Presently Lady Washington entered and took a seat before a large table.  A man-servant then brought a large empty bowl, also lemons, sugar, spices and rum, with which she proceeded to prepare the punch.  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.  “The poor girl,” relates her brother, “would play and cry, and cry and play, for long hours, under the immediate eye of her grandmother.”  For no shirking was allowed.

The truth would seem to be that Lady Washington was more severe with the young—­always excepting Jacky and George—­than was her husband.  He would often watch their games with evident enjoyment and would encourage them to continue their amusements and not to regard him.  He was the confidant of their hopes and fears and even amid tremendous cares of state found time to give advice about their love affairs.  For he was a very human man, after all, by no means the marble statue sculptured by some historians.