Answering Adrienne’s expressions of love, as relayed by Lafayette, Washington revealed a playfulness and self-mocking humor that no one else ever drew out of him: ‘Tell her (if you have not made a mistake, & offered your own love instead of hers to me) that I have a heart susceptible of the tenderest passion, & that it is already so strongly impressed with the most favourable ideas of her, that she must be cautious of putting love’s torch to it; as you must be in fanning the flame. But here again methinks I hear you say, I am not apprehensive of danger—my wife is young—you are growing old & the Atlantic is between you. All this is true, but know my good friend that no distance can keep anxious lovers long asunder, and that the wonders of formers ages may be revived in this. But alas!’ Difference in their years might stand between the old Washington and the young Adrienne, ‘[y]et, under the encouragement you have given me I shall enter the list for so inestimable a jewell.’
Finally winding down, he said, ‘When I look back to the length of this letter, I am so much astonished & frightened at it myself, that I have not the courage to give it a careful reading for the purpose of correction. You must therefore receive it with all its imperfections—accompanied with this assurance… there is not a single defect in the friendship of my dear Marquis.’
-Adopted Son: Washington, Lafayette, and the Friendship that Saved the Revolution. Clary. pgs. 246-247 (hardcover)
