to a servant at his elbow; but he vouchsafed no further answer.

"I think Arnaut has suggested that the baby should be sent away, but
Mathilde objects," remarked the old baroness.

"Send it away without asking her, then. Give her a pug instead; it will
be much more amusing, and not half the trouble the baby is," said Leon.

Here the servant returned to say madame would take her _dejeuner_ in the
nursery, as the nurse was out and she could not leave the baby.

"Really, Mathilde is too absurd, when there are at least three or four
other servants in the house who could look after the baby as well as the
nurse," said the old baroness, helping herself to some omelette.

"She is mad," muttered the baron, angrily.

"Quite, all women are; there can be no doubt about that. Look here,
Arnaut, it is quite clear if you don't send that infant away, you might
just as well live _en garcon_, like me, as I foresee you won't have much
of Mathilde's society now," said Leon.

"It does not require much foresight to predict that," said the baron,
bitterly.

"Well, if Mathilde won't send it away, just hand it over to me the next
time I take a cruise, which will be as soon as ever there is wind enough
to fill my sails, and I'll place the child somewhere where there is no
fear of Mathilde getting it again till it is of a reasonable age," said
Leon.

The idea of handing the baby over to the tender mercies of Leon struck
them all as so comic that a general laugh, in which all but the baron
joined, greeted this speech, which was forgotten as soon as it was
uttered by the speaker.

A few days after Leon announced that he was going on board his yacht
that evening; a south wind was blowing, and he should take a cruise up
the Channel. Would the baron go with him? They were sure to have fine
weather, and it would be delightful at sea in this heat. The baron
declined the invitation, as he was a wretched sailor; but that evening,
when he and Leon were smoking after dinner, he said, suddenly, "Where
are you going, Leon?"

"I don't know; it depends on the wind. I may run over to England, or I
may only go to the Channel Isles. I shall see."

"Shall you touch anywhere?"

"Oh, yes, I shall go ashore; I shan't take provisions for more than a
week. Why?"

The baron looked round the verandah in which they were sitting to make
sure that they were alone, and having satisfied himself of this he leant
forward and said, in a half-whisper, "Tiens, Le