I had not the smallest doubt when I realized with whom I had to do
that the unhappy mother had made a desperate effort to redress her
wrongs, as she thought them, and had somehow contrived to carry off
her baby before she could be deprived of it.
I had met her in full flight upon the Engadine express.
What next? Was she to be overtaken and despoiled, legally, of course,
but still cruelly, separated from her own flesh and blood? The Court
might order such an unnatural proceeding, but I was moved by every
chivalrous impulse to give her my unstinting and unhesitating support
to counteract it.
I was full of these thoughts, and still firmly resolved to help Lady
Blackadder, when l'Echelle, the conductor whose services I still
retained, sought me out hurriedly, and told me that he believed the
others were on the point of leaving Brieg.
"I saw Falfani and milord poring over the pages of the _Indicateur_,
and heard the word Geneva dropped in a whisper. I think they mean to
take the next train along the lake shore."
"Not a doubt of it," I assented; "so will we.
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