n's faithful
valet, to be secretly carried to his master.

Whether the answer decided the fate of the lover for life or for death,
it certainly controlled his action in an important matter. Immediately on
its receipt he hastened to the Hotel de l'Etat Major, the headquarters of
the army department, and solicited a month's leave of absence to visit
his father's family.

As it was the very first occasion upon which the young officer had asked
such a favor, it was promptly granted him.

Of course no one suspected that the cause of the young captain's action
had been the announcement that the French minister had been recalled by
his government, and was about to return to Paris.

The next day Waldemar de Volaski left St. Petersburg, ostensibly to visit
his father's estates in Poland.

And the next week the French minister, having presented his successor to
the Czar, and received his own conge, left the court and the city, and
set out for France.

The ministerial party travelled by the new railway from St. Petersburg to
Warsaw, a distance of nearly seven hundred miles.

At the capital of Poland they designed to stop a few days to rest the
baroness, whose health was suffering.

One day while in that city the baroness, her daughter, and the lady's
maid, went out together, shopping for curiosities in the Marieville
Bazaar, a square in the midst of the city, surrounded by many gay
arcades.

The square was full of visitors, and every arcade was crowded with
customers.

The baroness became somewhat interested in her purchases, and from moment
to moment turned to consult her daughter, who seemed ever ready so assist
her choice.

At length, however, in speaking to Mademoiselle de la Motte, her mother
failed to receive an answer.

Turning to rebuke the inattention of her daughter, the baroness
discovered that Valerie was missing.

Thinking only that she had got mixed up with the crowd, yet feeling very
much annoyed thereat, Madam de la Motte called her maid and instituted a
search, only to find, with dismay, that Mademoiselle was nowhere in the
square.

Believing then that the young girl must have taken the extraordinary
and very reprehensible proceeding of returning to the hotel alone and
resolving to give her daughter a severe reprimand for her imprudence,
the baroness returned to their temporary home, only to learn that
Mademoiselle de la Motte had not been seen there by any one since she
had left the house in c