flowering orange branch, which I have culled in the
forest; you will place it at night near your bed. Eat this honeycomb, which
I have taken for you from the top of a rock. But first lean upon my bosom,
and I shall be refreshed.'

"Virginia then answered, 'Oh my dear brother, the rays of the sun in the
morning at the top of the rocks give me less joy than the sight of you. I
love my mother, I love yours; but when they call you their son, I love them
a thousand times more. When they caress you, I feel it more sensibly than
when I am caressed myself. You ask me why you love me. Why, all creatures
that are brought up together love one another. Look at our birds reared up
in the same nests; they love like us; they are always together like us.
Hark? how they call and answer from one tree to another. So when the echoes
bring to my ears the air which you play upon your flute at the top of the
mountain, I repeat the words at the bottom of the valley. Above all, you
are dear to me since the day when you wanted to fight the master of the
slave for me. Since that time how often have I said to myself, 'Ah, my
brother has a good heart; but for him I should have died of terror.' I pray
to God every day for my mother and yours; for you, and for our poor
servants; but when I pronounce your name, my devotion seems to increase, I
ask so earnestly of God that no harm may befal you! Why do you go so far,
and climb so high, to seek fruits and flowers for me? How much you are
fatigued!' and with her little white handkerchief she wiped the damps from
his brow.

"For some time past, however, Virginia had felt her heart agitated by new
sensations. Her fine blue eyes lost their lustre, her cheek its freshness,
and her frame was seized with universal languor. Serenity no longer sat
upon her brow, nor smiles played upon her lips. She became suddenly gay
without joy, and melancholy without vexation. She fled her innocent sports,
her gentle labours, and the society of her beloved family; wandering along
the most unfrequented parts of the plantation, and seeking every where that
rest which she could no where find. Sometimes, at the sight of Paul, she
advanced sportively towards him, and, when going to accost him, was seized
with sudden confusion: her pale cheeks were overspread with blushes, and
her eyes no longer dared to meet those of her brother. Paul said to her,
'The rocks are covered with verdure, our birds begin to sing when you
approach, eve