alarmed at first, except she supposed she should get a scolding from the
nurse, who she imagined had come in and taken the child to another room;
however, having the excellent excuse that her master had called her away
she went in search of the nurse, but now not finding her anywhere, and
hearing from the footman that she was not expected back till very late,
Marie became seriously alarmed.

"Perhaps madame has taken it into her room; she might have heard it
crying, and fetched it," suggested the footman, and Marie, very much
against her will, felt she was in duty bound to go and see.

So, knocking at her mistress's door, she called out, "Madame, has she
taken the baby?"

The poor little baroness, who was asleep, started up, and called to the
servant to come in.

"Madame, has she the baby?" repeated the girl.

"The baby? No, what do you mean? Where is it, and where is nurse?" cried
the baroness, jumping up and slipping on a dressing-gown and slippers.

Marie began to cry, and to pour forth such a volley of words, excuses,
fears, alarms, and wonders that the baroness could make out nothing, and
rushed to the nursery to see for herself what had happened. The empty
cradle did not, however, throw much light upon it, and the servants who
answered the bell, which the baroness clashed wildly, looked as scared
as the sobbing Marie to find the baby had disappeared. A search from
attic to basement was at once instituted, the men-servants were sent
into the grounds with lanterns, the whole house was turned topsy-turvy,