The Girls Own Paper, Vol. VIII, No. 354, October 9, 1886 | Page 3

as long as Léon danced it
about it was quiet; the moment he stopped it began to cry.
"I wish old Pierre joy if he has to spend the next twenty-four hours in
this way. Drive on, Arnaut; my arms are aching so I can't keep this
game up much longer," said Léon, as they entered the village of
Carolles, where, luckily for them, all the inhabitants had already gone
to bed, and they met no one till they reached the place where the yacht
was lying.
A boat was waiting to take Léon on board with Pierre and the English
carpenter, to whom Léon spoke in English, asking him if he were quite
sure the baby would be well looked after where he proposed to place it,
and on Smith's answering that he was certain it would, Léon turned to
the baron, who did not understand a word of English, and told him he
need have no anxiety about the child.
"All right; I don't want to know where you are going to take it; make
any arrangements you like. If you want more money than I have given
you, let me know and you shall have it. When do you expect to be back

here, Léon?"
"Oh, not for a month at least; I shall keep away till all the fuss Mathilde
will make about the baby is over; meanwhile, if you change your mind
and want the baby back, write to me at my agent's and he will forward
your letter. Adieu."
And Léon, who had handed the baby to Pierre as soon as they met, now
kissed his brother on both cheeks and then sprang into the boat. Smith
pushed her off and sculled them across the moonlit sea to the yacht, the
baron watching them until they reached her and the boat was drawn up
to its davits, when he turned and drove back to the château, wondering
greatly how the baroness would bear the loss of her baby, and fearing a
very bad quarter of an hour was in store for him when she learnt what
had become of it.
A stiff breeze was blowing, but with wind and tide in her favour the
yacht sailed smoothly across the Channel, all on board her, except the
baby, being too inured to the sea to feel ill, and, luckily, the movement
of the yacht seemed to lull the child to sleep. When she woke Pierre
was always at hand with some milk, so that she was scarcely heard to
cry during the whole passage, spending the time in sleeping and eating,
and thereby enabling Pierre to earn for himself the character of a
first-rate nurse.
From time to time during the next day Léon came into the cabin to look
at his tiny charge, for whom an impromptu cradle had been made with
some pillows in an easy chair, and who seemed to have the happy
knack of adapting herself to circumstances, for she slept quietly on,
with a smile on her little face, all unconscious of the waves from which
a few planks divided her.
"Poor little mite; I hope they'll be kind to her, Smith, these friends of
yours. I am half sorry I brought her, though the baron wished it," said
Léon, as he left the cabin; but the next moment he was whistling on
deck as though no such thing as the baby existed.
Towards evening they came in sight of Brighton, whose long sea front,

even in those distant days, stretched for a mile or two along the coast,
and Léon, who knew the town well, and considered it one of the few
English towns in which he could spend a few days without dying of
ennui, was anxious to put in there, but Smith dissuaded him.
"If we put in here, sir, they'll be sure to trace the child; it would be far
better to let me go ashore with it in the gig, while you lay outside."
"But where are we to put in then? Having come to England, I mean to
go ashore for a day or two."
"Why not run up to Yarmouth, sir; the wind is fair; it is south-west now.
You have never been there, have you? And there'll be no fear of anyone
tracing the child there. If madame sees in the paper that we touched at
Yarmouth, she may inquire all over that part of the country without
finding the baby down in Sussex."
Léon considered the matter for a few minutes, and finally consented to
this arrangement; and about eight o'clock that evening the gig was
lowered, and Pierre, who would not abandon his charge till the last
minute, went ashore with John Smith and the baby.
They landed on a quiet spot