Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. I.djvu/192

 154 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS disconcerted lovers, after exchanging a glance, took their hats and departed. She married Mr. Jefferson in 1772. He retained a romantic devo tion for her throughout his life, and because of her failing health refused foreign appointments in 1776, and again in 1781, having promised that he would accept no public office that would involve their separation. For four months previous to her death he was never out of calling, and he was in sensible for several hours after that event. Two of their children died in infancy, Martha, Mary, and Lucy Elizabeth surviving, the latter dying in early girlhood. MARTHA, born at Monticello in September, 1772 ; died in Albemarle County, Va., September 27, 1836, after the death of her mother accompanied her father to Europe in 1784 and remained several years in a convent, until her desire to adopt a re ligious life induced her father to remove her from the school. In the autumn of the same year (1789) she married her cousin, Thomas Mann Randolph, afterward governor of Virginia, and, being en grossed with the cares of her large family, passed only a portion of her time in the White House, which she visited with her husband and children in 1802, with her sister in 1803, and during the winter of 1805- 6. After the retirement of Mr. Jeffer son she devoted much of her life to his declining