THE SHEPHERD'S FAIRY.

A PASTORALE.

BY DARLEY DALE, Author of "Fair Katherine," etc.


CHAPTER II.

Up the old oak staircase three or four stairs at a time sprang the
baron; then he walked quickly with beating heart down the long corridor
to the west wing, where the nursery was, and pausing at the top of a
spiral staircase which led to the side door he intended to go out by, he
shouted impatiently to the housemaid who was left in charge of the baby.

"Marie! Marie! _Vite, vite._ Where is Monsieur Léon's malacca cane? It
was in my dressing-room this morning. Fetch it directly."

The girl came running to do her master's bidding, and no sooner had the
white streamers of her cap disappeared down the corridor than the baron
darted into the nursery. A lamp was burning on a table at one end of the
room, and at the other, carefully guarded from any draught by a
folding-screen, stood a swinging-cradle, on pedestals of silver. The
framework, the baron knew, was an old family relic, but the cradle
itself was a new and wonderful creation of white swansdown and blue
satin, lined with lace and trimmed with pale blue ribbons. In this mass
of satin and lace lay the baron's tiny daughter, fast asleep, her small
fingers grasping a lovely toy of pink coral with golden bells, which was