shall take pleasure in
making any arrangements that are necessary. Again, I beg your pardon."

"And it will not be so very difficult, after all, will it?" she
inquired, and she smiled tauntingly.

"It will not be at all difficult, Madam," the ambassador assured her
gravely. "I shall take steps at once to have an invitation issued to you
for to-night; and to-morrow I shall be pleased to proceed as you may
suggest."

She nodded. He folded the note, replaced it in the envelope and returned
it to her with another deep bow. She drew her skirts about her and sat
down; he stood.

"It will be necessary for your name to appear on the invitation," the
ambassador went on to explain. "If you will give me your name I'll have
my secretary--"

"Oh, yes, my name," she interrupted gaily. "Why, Count, you embarrass
me. You know, really, I have no name. Isn't it awkward?"

"I understand perfectly, Madam," responded the count. "I should have
said _a_ name."

She meditated a moment.

"Well, say--Miss Thorne--Miss Isabel Thorne," she suggested at last.
"That will do very nicely, don't you think?"

"Very nicely, Miss Thorne," and the ambassador bowed again. "Please
excuse me a moment, and I'll give my secretary instructions how to
proceed. There will be a delay of a few minutes."

He opened the door and went out. For a minute or more Miss Thorne sat
perfectly still, gazing at the blank wooden panels, then she rose and
went to the window again. In the distance, hazy in the soft night, the
dome of the capitol rose mistily; over to the right was the
congressional library, and out there where the lights sparkled lay
Pennsylvania Avenue, a thread of commerce. Miss Thorne saw it all, and
suddenly stretched out her arms with an all-enveloping gesture. She
stood so for a minute, then they fell beside her, and she was
motionless.

Count di Rosini entered.

"Everything is arranged, Miss Thorne," he announced. "Will you go with
me in my automobile, or do you prefer to go alone?"

"I'll go alone, please," she answered after a moment. "I shall be there
about eleven."

The ambassador bowed himself out.

And so Miss Isabel Thorne came to Washington!

II

MR. CAMPBELL AND THE CABLE

Just as it is one man's business to manufacture watches, and another
man's business to peddle shoe-strings, so it was Mr. Campbell's business
to know things. He was a human card index, a governmental ready
reference posted to the minute and back