the traveller, when, after a long absence from his own
country, he finds not his contemporaries, but their children, whom he left
at the breast, and whom he sees are become fathers of families. Paul
sometimes thought of hewing down the tree, which recalled too sensibly the
distracted image of that length of time which had clasped since the
departure of Virginia. Sometimes, contemplating it as a monument of her
benevolence, he kissed its trunk, and apostrophised it in terms of the most
passionate regret; and, indeed I have myself gazed upon it with more
emotion and more veneration than upon the triumphal arches of Rome.

"At the foot of this papaw I was always sure to meet with Paul when he came
into our neighbourhood. One day, when I found him absorbed in melancholy,
we had a conversation, which I will relate to you, if I do not weary you by
my long digressions; perhaps pardonable to my age and my last friendships.

"Paul said to me, 'I am very unhappy. Mademoiselle de la Tour has now been
gone two years and two months; and we have heard no tidings of her for
eight months and two weeks. She is rich, and I am poor. She has forgotten
me. I have a great mind to follow her. I will go to France; I will serve
the king; make a fortune; and then Mademoiselle de la Tour's aunt will
bestow her niece upon me when I shall have become a great lord.

"'But, my dear friend,' I answered, 'have you not told me that you are not
of noble birth?'

"'My mother has told me so,' said Paul. 'As for myself I know not what
noble birth means.'

"'Obscure birth,' I replied, 'in France shuts out all access to great
employments; nor can you even be received among any distinguished body of
men.'

"'How unfortunate I am!' resumed Paul; 'every thing repulses me. I am
condemned to waste my wretched life in labour, far from Virginia.' And he
heaved a deep sigh.

"'Since her relation,' he added, 'will only give her in marriage to some
one with a great name, by the aid of study we become wise and celebrated. I
will fly then to study; I will acquire sciences; I will serve my country
usefully by my attainments; I shall be independent; I shall become
renowned; and my glory will belong only to myself.'

"'My son! talents are still more rare than birth or riches, and are
undoubtedly an inestimable good, of which nothing can deprive us, and which
every where conciliate public esteem. But they cost dear: they are
generally allied to exquisite sensibility