y. Already the figure of Paul displayed the
graces of manly beauty. He was taller than Virginia; his skin was of a
darker tint; his nose more aquiline; and his black eyes would have been too
piercing, if the long eyelashes, by which were shaded, had not given them a
look of softness. He was constantly in motion, except when his sister
appeared; and then, placed at her side, he became quiet. Their meals often
passed in silence, and, from the grace of their attitudes, the beautiful
proportions of their figures, and their naked feet, you might have fancied
you beheld an antique group of white marble, representing some of the
children of Niobe; if those eyes which sought to meet those smiles which
were answered by smiles of the most tender softness, had not rather given
you the idea of those happy celestial spirits, whose nature is love, and
who are not obliged to have recourse to words for the expression of that
intuitive sentiment. In the mean time, Madame de la Tour, perceiving every
day some unfolding grace, some new beauty, in her daughter, felt her
maternal anxiety increase with her tenderness. She often said to me, 'If I
should die, what will become of Virginia without fortune?'

"Madame de la Tour had an aunt in France, who was a woman of quality, rich,
old and a great bigot. She had behaved towards her niece with so much
cruelty upon her marriage that Madame de la Tour had determined that no
distress or misfortune should ever compel her to have recourse to her
hard-hearted relation. But when she became a mother, the pride of
resentment was stilled in the stronger feelings of maternal tenderness. She
wrote to her aunt, informing her of the sudden death of her husband, the
birth of her daughter, and the difficulties in which she was involved at a
distance from her own country, without support, and burthened with a child.
She received no answer; but, notwithstanding that high spirit which was
natural to her character, she no longer feared exposing herself to
mortification and reproach; and, although she knew her relation would never
pardon her for having married a man of merit, but not of noble birth, she
continued to write to her by every opportunity, in the hope of awakening
her compassion for Virginia. Many years, however, passed, during which she
received not the smallest testimony of her remembrance.

"At length, in 1738, three years after the arrival of Monsieur de la
Bourdonnais in this island, Madame de la Tour