ompany with her mother, attended by her maid.

Fearing then that her daughter, in rashly attempting to return home
alone, had lost herself in the streets of Warsaw, the baroness sent
messengers in every direction to seek for her and guide her back.

Meanwhile the Baron de la Motte, who had been to inspect the fine gallery
of paintings preserved in the old villa of Stanislaus Augustus, returned
to his hotel, and was informed by the now half distracted baroness of the
disappearance of their daughter.

The Baron, struck with dismay, inquired into the circumstances of the
case, and was told of the shopping expedition to the Marieville Bazaar,
where Valerie was first missed.

"It was at her own earnest solicitation that I took her there, to pick up
some of the curiously carved jewelry and trinkets. First, she wished, in
consideration of my health, to go there attended only by her maid; but I
would not allow any such indiscretion. I took her there myself, and even
while I was talking with her before one of the arcades, she vanished like
a spirit! One moment she was there, the next moment she was gone! We
looked for her immediately, but found no trace of her."

The baron replied not one word to this explanation, but took his hat and
walked out to join the search for the missing girl, while the baroness
remained in her rooms, a prey to the most poignant anxiety.

It was near midnight when the baron returned, looking full ten years
older than he did when he went forth.

No trace of the missing girl had been found, and whether her
disappearance was a flight or an abduction no one could even conjecture.

The condition of the agonized mother became critical; she could not be
persuaded to lie down, or to cease from her restless walking to and fro
in her chamber.

At length, a physician was summoned, who administered a potent sedative,
which conquered her nervous excitement, and laid her in a blessed sleep
upon her bed.

The next morning the search, which had not been quite abandoned even
during the night, was renewed with great vigor, stimulated by the large
rewards offered by the afflicted father for the recovery of his lost
child; but still no trace of Valerie de la Motte could be found, no news
of her be heard.

And so, without any change a week passed away, and then, while the
baroness lay in extreme nervous prostration, hovering between life and
death, and the baron crept about her bed like a man bowed down by the