go unpunished. Therefore, if you do find any clew to the
affair, we will not grumble at your following it up, even if it does
take you away from home for a short time. By the bye, we had letters
this morning from a certain young lady in Georgia, inclosing her
photograph, and I rather fancy there is one for you somewhere."

"Where is it, mother?" Vincent asked, jumping from his seat.

"Let me think," Mrs. Wingfield replied. "Did either of you girls put it
away, or where can it have been stowed?"

The girls both laughed.

"Now, Vincent, what offer do you make for the letter? Well, we won't
tease you," Annie went on as Vincent gave an impatient exclamation.
"Another time we might do so, but as you have just come safely back to
us I don't think it would be fair, especially as this is the very first
letter. Here it is!" and she took out of the workbox before her the
missive Vincent was so eager to receive.

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. I looked at my accounts next
morning, and found that Pearson had only credited me with one-third of
the amount he must have received, so I at once dismissed him. Indeed, I
had been thinking of doing so some little time before, for money is so
scarce and the price of produce so low that I felt I could not afford to
pay as much as I had been giving him."

"I am afraid I have been drawing rather heavily, mother," Vincent put
in.

"I have plenty of money, Vincent. Since your father's death we have had
much less company than before, and I have not sp