mother for it? How much do you want?"

"I don't know exactly. About eight hundred dollars, I should think;
though it may be a thousand. I want to buy a slave."

"You want to buy a slave!" repeated Mr. Renfrew. "What on earth
do you want to buy a slave for? You have more than you want
now at the Orangery."

"It's a slave that man Jackson is going to sell next Saturday, on
purpose to spite the poor creature's husband and drive him to
desperation," and Vincent then repeated the whole story of the
circumstances that had led up to the sale.

"It is all very abominable on the part of these Jacksons," Mr.
Renfrew said, "but your interference was most imprudent, my
young friend; and, as you see, it has done harm rather than good.
If you are so quixotic as to become the champion of every
ill-treated slave in the State, your work is pretty well cut out for
you."

"I know that, sir," Vincent replied, smiling, "and I can assure you I
did not intend to enter upon any such crusade; but, you see, I have
wrongly or rightly mixed myself up in this, and I want to repair the
mischief which, as you say, I have caused. The only way I can see
is to buy this negress and her baby."

"But I do not see that you will carry out your object if you do,
Vincent. She will be separated just as much from her husband if
you buy her as if any one else does. He is at one plantation and