ut of her polka dotted
silk, and she looks lovely."

"Humph!" retorted Miss Cobb. "Minnie, you love Miss Jennings almost like
a daughter, don't you?"

"Like a sister, Miss Cobb," I said. "I'm not feeble yet."

"Well, you wouldn't want to see her deceived."

"I wouldn't have it," I answered.

"Then what do you call this?" She put a small package on the counter,
and stared at me over it. "There's treachery here, black treachery." She
pointed one long thin forefinger at the bundle.

"What is it? A bomb?" I asked, stepping back. More than once it had
occurred to me that having royalty around sometimes meant dynamite. Miss
Cobb showed her teeth.

"Yes, a bomb," she said. "Minnie, since that creature took my letters
and my er--protectors, I have suspected her. Now listen. Yesterday I
went over the letters and I missed one that beautiful one in verse,
beginning, 'Oh, creature of the slender form and face!' Minnie, it had
disappeared--melted away."

"I'm not surprised," I said.

"And so, last night, when the Summers woman was out, goodness knows
where, Blanche Moody and I went through her room. We did not find my
precious missive from Mr. Jones, but we did find these, Minnie, tied
around with a pink silk stocking."

"Heavens!" I said, mockingly. "Not a pink silk!"

"Pink," she repeated solemnly. "Minnie, I have felt it all along. Mr.
Oskar von Inwald is the prince himself."

"No!"

"Yes. And more than that, he is making desperate love to Miss Summers.
Three of those letters were written in one day! Why, even Mr. Jones--"

"The wretch!" I cried. I was suddenly savage. I wanted to take Mr. von
Inwald by the throat and choke him until his lying tongue was black, to
put the letters where Miss Patty could never see them. I wanted--I had
to stop to sell Senator Biggs some chewing-gum, and when he had gone,
Miss Cobb was reaching out for the bundle. I snatched it from her.

"Give me those letters instantly," she cried shrilly. But I marched from
behind the counter and over to the fireplace.

"Never," I said, and put the package on the log. When they were safely
blazing, I turned and looked at Miss Cobb.

"I'd put my hand right beside those letters to save Miss Patty a
heartache," I said, "and you know it."

"You're a fool." She was raging. "You'll let her marry him and have the
heartaches afterward."

"She won't marry him," I snapped, and walked away with my chin up,
leaving her staring.

But I wasn't so sur