be ready with the baby, well wrapped up for the journey.  The half-stupefied woman had no words nor courage with which to declare, at this moment, the true state of the case.  She said nothing, and went back to the nursery and sat there in dumb consternation, and without sense enough to make a plan of any kind.  The strange child soon awoke and began to cry, and then the nurse mechanically fed it, and it went to sleep again.  When the summons came to her to prepare for the journey, in cowardly haste she wrapped the baby, so carefully covering its head that she scarcely gave it a chance to breathe; and she and the lady’s waiting-maid were sent in a cab to the Victoria Station.  The lady was travelling with a party of friends, and the nurse and the waiting-maid were placed in the adjoining compartment of the railway-carriage.  On the six hours’ channel passage from Newhaven to Dieppe the lady was extremely sick, and reached France in such a condition that she had to be almost carried on shore.  It had been her intention to stop a few days at this fashionable watering-place, but she declared that she must go straight on to Paris, where she could be properly attended to, and, moreover, that she never wanted to see the sea again.  When she had been placed in the train for Paris she sent for the nurse, and feebly asked how the baby was, and if it had been seasick.  On being told that it was all right, and had not shown a sign of illness, she expressed her gratification, and lay back among her rugs.

The nurse and the waiting-maid travelled together, as before, but the latter, wearied by her night’s attendance upon her mistress, slept all the way from Dieppe to Paris.  When they reached that city, they went into the waiting-room until a carriage could be procured for them, and there the nurse, placing the baby on a seat, asked her companion to take care of it for a few minutes.  She then went out of the station door, and disappeared into Paris.

In this way, the brunt of the terrible disclosure, which came very soon, was thrown upon the waiting-maid.  No one, however, attached any blame to her:  of course, the absconding nurse had carried away the fair-haired child.  The waiting-maid had been separated from her during the passage from the train to the station, and it was supposed that in this way an exchange of babies had been easily made by her and her confederates.  When the mother knew of her loss, her grief was so violent that for a time her life was in danger.  All Paris was searched by the police and her friends, but no traces could be found of the wicked nurse and the fair-haired child.  Money, which, of course, was considered the object of the inhuman crime, was freely offered, but to no avail.  No one imagined for an instant that the exchange was made before the party reached Paris.  It seemed plain enough that the crime was committed when the woman fled.

Corinne, who had been placed in the charge of a servant until it was determined what to do with her, was not at all satisfied with the new state of affairs, and loudly demanded her papa and mamma, behaving for a time in a very turbulent way.  In a few days, the lady recovered her strength, and asked to see this child.  The initials upon Corinne’s heels had been discovered, and, when she was told of these, the lady examined them closely.