Page:Maud Howe - Atlanta in the South.djvu/201

 evil, I think we may call them; and while Louisiana produces crops of sugar-cane, of rice, and of cotton, the negro must stay to gather them. To be sure, the measures which Congress seems about to adopt point to the direct crushing out of the sugar interests of the South. It is too lucrative a business for us to be permitted to carry on. Sugar brings seven cents a pound now, and when the duty is lifted, this estate, which to-day yields only half what it once did, will not pay for the planting. Strange times these!"

The old man, spoke bitterly, and a moment's silence followed, broken at last by Bouton de Rose.

"I wish that I had seen La Louisiane in other times. It must have been very picturesque, slavery," he said, lightly.

"It is very picturesque now," said Margaret, "quite as full of romance and color as any life that I have ever seen in the old world."

Darius Harden, whose diplomatic soul had been tortured by the conversation, which could hardly fail to prove a heated one should it be allowed to go farther, seeing his opportunity to make a diversion, said:— "I quite agree with you, Miss Margaret. It is cooler now; will you not come and see the quarters?"