by several rows of ripe fruit.
Paul, wandering accidentally to the spot, was struck with delight at
seeing this lofty tree, which had been planted by his beloved; but the
emotion was transient, and instantly gave place to a deep melancholy,
at this evidence of her long absence. The objects which are habitually
before us do not bring to our minds an adequate idea of the rapidity of
life; they decline insensibly with ourselves: but it is those we behold
again, that most powerfully impress us with a feeling of the swiftness
with which the tide of life flows on. Paul was no less over-whelmed and
affected at the sight of this great papaw tree, loaded with fruit, than
is the traveller when, after a long absence from his own country, he
finds his contemporaries no more, but their children, whom he left at
the breast, themselves now become fathers of families. Paul sometimes
thought of cutting down the tree, which recalled too sensibly the
distracting remembrance of Virginia's prolonged absence. At other times,
contemplating it as a monument of her benevolence, he kissed its trunk,
and apostrophized it in terms of the most passionate regret. Indeed,
I have myself gazed upon it with more emotion and more veneration than
upon the triumphal arches of Rome. May nature, which every day destroys
the monuments of kingly ambition, multiply in our forests those which
testify the beneficence of a poor young girl!

At the foot of this papaw tree I was always sure to meet with Paul when
he came into our neighbourhood. One day, I found him there absorbed in
melancholy and a conversation took place between us, which I will relate
to you, if I do not weary you too much by my long digressions; they are
perhaps pardonable to my age and to my last friendships. I will relate
it to you in the form of a dialogue, that you may form some idea of the
natural good sense of this young man. You will easily distinguish the
speakers, from the character of his questions and of my answers.

_Paul._--I am very unhappy. Mademoiselle de la Tour has now been gone
two years and eight months and a half. 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; I will make my fortune; and then
Mademoiselle de la Tour's aunt will bestow her niece upon me when I
shall have become a great lord.

_The Old Man._--But, my dear friend, have not you told me that you are
not of noble birth?

_Paul._