east;
She speaks no more, he weeps no more, for God knows what is best.
He has taken both from a world of pain
To endless peace and rest.

E. A. V.

[Illustration]

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 Leon'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
fastened round her waist with pale blue ribbon. For one moment the baron
hesitated. To tear the little creature from her luxurious home, and
trust her to the tender mercies of some rough sailors for a day or two,
and then leave her in the hands of strangers, who might or might not be
kind to her, seemed hard even to the baron, whose mind was warped by
jealousy; but then came the thought that all this luxury with which the
child was so extravagantly surrounded was bad for her; if Mathilde
persisted in pampering her in this way, she would grow up weak and
delicate. The life he had chosen for her was far more healthy; and if
she were inured to a harder life in her infancy, she was much more
likely to develop into a strong, healthy girl; and as he quieted his
conscience with these thoughts his hesitation vanished, and he stooped
to pick her up.

But hark! there was a footstep. Was it Marie returning? What would she
think to find him in the nursery, into w