premise: There is a long amiable letter to the young Lafayette in 1779, in which Washington, in a giddy mood, drifts into a reverie about competing for Lafayette's young wife with Lafayette himself--a funny bit of teasing, followed abruptly by a rueful reassurance, worthy of Stendhal himself, that amidst all the wonders recorded in holy writ no instance can be produced where a Woman from real inclination has preferred an old man.
hypothesis: Although he had pursued her as a single man, several years later, Washington still harbored feelings for Lafayette's wife and thought of her as "the one that got away."