when he flew in search of it to his mother's cottage. This picture was a
small miniature, representing Paul the Hermit, and which Margaret, who was
very pious, had long worn hung at her neck when she was a girl, and which,
since she became a mother, she had placed round the neck of her child. It
had even happened, that being while pregnant, abandoned by the whole world,
and continually employed in contemplating the image of this benevolent
recluse, her offspring had contracted, at least so she fancied, some
resemblance to this revered object. She therefore bestowed upon him the
name of Paul, giving him for his patron a saint, who had passed his life
far from mankind, by whom he had been first deceived, and then forsaken.
Virginia, upon receiving this little picture from the hands of Paul, said
to him, with emotion, 'My dear brother, I will never part with this while I
live; nor will I ever forget that you have given me the only thing which
you possess in the world.' At this tone of friendship this unhoped-for
return of familiarity and tenderness, Paul attempted to embrace her; but,
light as a bird, she fled, and left him astonished, and unable to account
for a conduct so extraordinary.

"Meanwhile Margaret said to Madame de la Tour, 'Why do we not unite our
children by marriage? They have a tender attachment to each other.' Madame
de la Tour replied, 'They are too young, and too poor. What grief would it
occasion us to see Virginia bring into the world unfortunate children, whom
she would not perhaps have sufficient strength to rear! Your negro,
Domingo, is almost too old to labour; Mary is infirm. As for myself, my
dear friend, in the space of fifteen years I find my strength much failed;
age advances rapidly in hot climates, and, above all, under the pressure of
misfortune. Paul is our only hope: let us wait till his constitution is
strengthened, and till he can support us by his labour: at present you well
know that we have only sufficient to supply the wants of the day: but were
we to send Paul for a short time to the Indies, commerce would furnish him