poken of under one's breath, and now I must hurry away. May I
venture to hope that you will honour me with your presence at one of my
receptions if I send you a card?"

"I shall be delighted to do so," replied the Princess, with that
gracious condescension which became her so well.

The garrulous old lady was the last to take her leave, and when the
Princess was left alone with her guest, she cried,--

"Jennie, I have found out absolutely nothing, what have you discovered?"

"Everything!" replied the girl, walking up and down the floor in
excitement over the unearthing of such a bonanza of news.

"You don't tell me so! Now do sit down and let me know the full
particulars at once."

When Jennie's exciting story was finished she said,--

"You see, this robbery explains why the Premier did not follow up his
warlike speech. The police seem to think that England has had a hand in
this robbery, but of course that is absurd."

"I am not so sure of that," replied the Princess, taking as she spoke,
the Chicago point of view, and forgetting for the moment her position
among the aristocracy of Europe. "England takes most things it can get
its hands on, and she is not too slow to pick up a gold mine here and
there, so why should she hesitate when the gold is already minted for
her?"

"It is too absurd for argument," continued Jennie calmly, "so we won't
talk of that phase of the subject. I must get away to England instantly.
Let us find out when the first train leaves."

"Nonsense!" protested the Princess; "what do you need to go to England
for? You have seen nothing of Vienna."

"Oh, I can see Vienna another time; I must get to England with this
account of the robbery."

"Won't your paper pay for telegraphing such an important piece of news?

"Oh, yes; there would be no difficulty about that, but I dare not trust
either the post or the telegraph in a case like this. The police are on
the watch."

"But couldn't you send it through by a code? My father always used to do
his cabling by code; it saved a lot of money and also kept other people
from knowing what his business was."

"I have a code, but I hesitate about trusting even to that."

"I'll tell you what we'll do," said the Princess. "I want you to stay in
Vienna."

"Oh, I shall return," said Jennie. "I've only just had a taste of this
delightful city. I'll come right back."

"I can't trust you to do anything of the kind. When you get to London
you will st