That lady,
affected by this tender reception, pressed her in her arms, and exclaimed,
'Ah, surely Heaven will put an end to my misfortunes, since it inspires
you, to whom I am a stranger, with more goodness towards me than I have
ever experienced from my own relations!'
"I knew Margaret; and, although my habitation is a league and a half from
hence, in the woods behind that sloping mountain, I considered myself as
her neighbour. In the cities of Europe a street, sometimes even a less
distance, separates families whom nature had united; but in new colonies we
consider those persons as neighbours from whom we are divided only by woods
and mountains; and above all, at that period when this island had little
intercourse with the Indies, neighbourhood alone gave a claim to
friendship, and hospitality toward strangers seemed less a duty than a
pleasure. No sooner was I informed that Margaret had found a companion,
than I hastened thither, in hope of being useful to my neighbour and her
guest.
"Madame de la Tour possessed all those melancholy graces which give beauty
additional power, by blending sympathy with admiration. Her figure was
interesting, and her countenance expressed at once dignity and dejection.
She appeared to be in the last stage of her pregnancy. I told them that,
for the future interests of their children, and to prevent the intrusion of
any other settler, it was necessary they should divide between them the
property of this wild sequestered valley, which is nearly twenty acres in
extent.
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