"At the sight of this general desolation, Virginia exclaimed to Paul, 'You
brought birds hither, and the hurricane has killed them. You planted this
garden, and it is now destroyed. Every thing then upon earth perishes, and
it is only heaven that is not subject to change.' 'Why,' answered Paul,
'why cannot I give you something which belongs to heaven? but I am
possessed of nothing even upon earth.' Virginia, blushing, resumed, 'You
have the picture of Saint Paul.' Scarcely had she pronounced the words,
when he flew in search of it to his mother's cottage. This picture was a
small miniature, representing Paul the Hermit, and which Margaret, who was
very pious, had long worn hung at her neck when she was a girl, and which,
since she became a mother, she had placed round the neck of her child. It
had even happened, that being while pregnant, abandoned by the whole world,
and continually employed in contemplating the image of this benevolent
recluse, her offspring had contracted, at least so she fancied, some
resemblance to this revered object. She therefore bestowed upon him the
name of Paul, giving him for his patron a saint, who had passed his life
far from mankind, by whom he had been first deceived, and then forsaken.
Virginia, upon receiving this little picture from the hands of Paul, said
to him, with emotion, 'My dear brother, I will never part with this while I
live; nor will I ever forget that you have given me the only thing which
you possess in the world.
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