CHAPTER XVI.
THE SEARCH FOR DINAH.
"By the bye, Vincent," Mrs.Wingfield remarked next morning at breakfast, "I have parted with Pearson." "I am glad to hear it, mother.

What! did you discover at last that he was a scamp ?" "Several things that occurred shook my confidence in him, Vincent.

The accounts were not at all satisfactory, and it happened quite accidentally that when I was talking one day with Mr.Robertson, who, as you know, is a great speculator in tobacco, I said that I should grow no more tobacco, as it really fetched nothing.

He replied that it would be a pity to give it up, for so little was now cultivated that the price was rising, and the Orangery tobacco always fetched top prices.

'I think the price I paid for your crop this year must at any rate have paid for the labor--that is to say, paid for the keep of the slaves and something over.' He then mentioned the price he had given, which was certainly a good deal higher than I had imagined.