The Girls Own Paper, Vol. VIII, No. 357, October 30, 1886 | Page 5

sure Léon had gone ashore at Yarmouth to place the
baby with some Englishwoman, and had remained there some days on
purpose. Confiding his new hope to Père Yvon, he at once decided to
start that night for England by Dover and Calais, for already steamers
ran once or twice a week between these ports. He would then go on to

Yarmouth by stage-coach, and make all inquiries for his baby. His
difficulty was, he did not know the language, but living near the
Château de Thorens was a Monsieur de Courcy, who had married an
English wife, and spoke English very well. He was intimate with the
De Thorens, and the baron hoped he might be able to help him in his
trouble.
Accordingly he called on the De Courcys at once, and, to his great
relief, Monsieur de Courcy offered to go to Yarmouth with him, while
Madame de Courcy suggested that the baroness should come and stay
with her during their husbands' absence, for the château was a very
gloomy place for the poor young mother while the shadow of death
rested upon it. Arnaud jumped at this, for he had never been separated
from his wife since their marriage, and he would far rather leave her
with this pretty young English lady than at the château, while his
mother's grief for Léon saddened the whole household. It was easy to
account for his journey to England, by saying that he was going to get
particulars of the accident from the place off which it happened. This
would seem only natural to Mathilde, who must on no account be told
that he had any hope of finding the child. She had accepted the news of
its death without questioning it, and it was far better to let her continue
under this impression than to raise fresh hopes, which, after all, might
never be realised, and if he could only persuade her to come to Parc du
Baffy while he was away he would feel quite happy about her.
Madame de Courcy and the baroness were on intimate terms with each
other, although Madame de Courcy was a staunch Protestant, and both
the baron and baroness bigoted Romanists; but the great attraction to
Mathilde, as Madame de Courcy guessed, would be her child, a
beautiful boy of three years old, in whom the baroness had delighted
until her own baby was born and absorbed all her time and affection.
Knowing this, Madame de Courcy offered to send her boy to the
château with the baron, hoping to inveigle the baroness to return with
him to Parc du Baffy, a manoeuvre which succeeded admirably, for
Mathilde, not having seen the little Rex for some weeks, was so
enraptured with him that she could not part with him, and as Madame
de Courcy could not be asked to spare her child as well as her husband,

the baroness consented to go and stay at the Parc while the baron was
away. The little Rex was too old to remind her of her own baby, and his
pretty mixture of French and English amused her immensely, and for
the moment charmed away her sorrow. Had she known the real object
of her husband's visit to England, the suspense and anxiety would have
made her seriously ill; not knowing it, the change and Rex's society did
her good, so that Madame de Courcy was able, after a day or two, to
write to the baron and tell him his wife was certainly better and more
cheerful since she had been at the Parc du Baffy.
Meanwhile the baron and M. de Courcy reached Yarmouth safely, and
learned the day and hour on which the Hirondelle arrived and also left
Yarmouth, and that the cause of her remaining so long there was the
absconding of an English sailor, named, or, at all events, calling
himself, John Smith. The baron was more elated than ever at hearing
this, for he knew the Englishman was to place the baby out to nurse,
and if he were safe, the chances were that the child was too; but when,
after having run two or three John Smiths to earth and discovered that
they bore no resemblance to the original, it became evident that the real
John Smith had made himself scarce, and was probably not John Smith
at all, the baron's hopes of recovering the child again fell, though he
could not abandon the idea that if he could only find the runaway sailor
he should hear some news of the child. The wish was, perhaps, father to
the thought, but he could not help thinking the child was not on board
the Hirondelle when she went down, now that he found the English
carpenter had left the yacht