ou are not going to leave us?" cried the Princess.

"I should be delighted to stay; but there is no rest for the wicked, and
I must get back to London."

With that the girl ran to her room and there re-read the letter she had
received.

"Dear Miss Baxter (it ran),--We are in a very considerable dilemma here,
so I write asking you to see me in London without delay, going back to
the Tyrol later on if the investigation of the diamond mystery renders
your return necessary. The Duchess of Chiselhurst is giving a great ball
on the 29th. It is to be a very swagger affair, with notables from every
part of Europe, and they seem determined that no one connected with a
newspaper shall be admitted. We have set at work every influence to
obtain an invitation for a reporter, but without success, the reply
invariably given being that an official account will be sent to
the press. Now, I want you to set your ingenuity at work, and gain
admittance if possible, for I am determined to have an account of this
ball written in such a way that everyone who reads it will know that the
writer was present. If you can manage this, I can hardly tell you how
grateful the proprietor and myself will be.--Yours very truly,

"RADNOR HARDWICK."

Miss Jennie Baxter sat for some moments musing, with the letter in her
hand. She conned over in her mind the names of those who might be able
to assist her in this task, but she dismissed them one by one, well
knowing that if Mr. Hardwick and the proprietor of the _Bugle_ had
petitioned all their influential friends without avail, she could not
hope to succeed with the help of the very few important personages she
was acquainted with. She wondered if the Princess could get her an
invitation; then suddenly her eyes lit up, and she sprang eagerly to her
feet.

"What a fortunate thing it is," she cried aloud, "that I did not send
on the refusal of the Princess to the Duchess of Chiselhurst. I had
forgotten all about it until this moment."

CHAPTER VII. JENNIE ARRANGES A CINDERELLA VISIT.

The room which had been allotted to Jennie Baxter in the Schloss
Steinheimer enjoyed a most extended outlook. A door-window gave access
to a stone balcony, which hung against the castle wall like a swallow's
nest at the eaves of a house. This balcony was just wide enough to give
ample space for one of the easy rocking-chairs which the Princess had
imported from America, and which Jennie thought were the only real