THE WIFE OP GEORGE WASHINGTON. 281 was pressed by a friend to stay to dinner. With extreme reluctance lie consented, intending to mount the moment the meal was over. At the table he met the widow, and was captivated. The horses were pawing at the door, but the young Colonel came not forth. The afternoon flew by, yet he came not. Evening drew on, the horses were taken back to the stable ; Colonel Washington had made up his mind to stop all night. It was not till the next morning that he rode away. Within a year they were married at the " White House," which was her home, and they took up their abode at Mount Vernon soon after. Her first husband had left a vast estate in lands, and forty-five thousand pounds in money, one-third of which was hers, and now became the joint property of Colonel Washington and herself. By their marriage, he became one of the richest men in Vir- ginia. She gained an excellent husband, and her three children a wise and careful father. If any lady in Virginia could claim exemption from the cares and labors of a household, on account of her wealth and social standing, it was Mrs. Washington. She had been an heiress and a beauty. For generations her ancestors had been persons of wealth and high considera- tion. Her first husband possessed a great fortune, and her second was the most illustrious personage of his time. But she deemed it a privilege to attend to the details of housekeeping, and regarded the days when she was obliged to shine in the drawing-room as " lost."
