Ship builders were now so ingenious,
and sailors so expert! He then told me of the arrangements he would make
for her reception, of the new habitation he would build for her, of the
pleasures and surprises which each day should bring along with it when she
was his wife? His wife! That hope was ecstasy. 'At least, my dear father,'
said he, 'you shall then do nothing more than you please. Virginia being
rich, we shall have a number of negroes, who will labour for you. You shall
always live with us, and have no other care than to amuse and rejoice
yourself:' and, his heart throbbing with delight, he flew to communicate
those exquisite sensations to his family.
"In a short time, however, the most cruel apprehensions succeeded those
enchanting hopes. Violent passions ever throw the soul into opposite
extremes. Paul returned to my dwelling absorbed in melancholy, and said to
me, 'I hear nothing from Virginia. Had she left Europe she would have
informed me of her departure. Ah! the reports which I have heard concerning
her are but too well founded. Her aunt has married her to some great lord.
She, like others, has been undone by the love of riches. In those books
which paint women so well, virtue is but a subject of romance. Had Virginia
been virtuous, she would not have forsaken her mother and me, and, while I
pass life in thinking of her, forgotten me. While I am wretched, she is
happy.
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