"Is it what?"
"Is it your own house? I was told it was mortgaged up to the tallest turret. Still, you can"t blame Mr. Briggs for being anxious about the diamonds; they belong to his daughter."
"They belong to my wife."
"True. That complicates matters a bit, and gives both Chicago and Vienna a right to look black. And now, your Highness, I must take my leave of you; and if the diamonds come safely in the morning, remember I intend to claim salvage on them. Meanwhile, I am going to write a nice little story about them."
In the morning the diamonds arrived by special messenger, who first took a formal receipt for them, and then most obsequiously took his departure. By the same train came Mr. Cadbury Taylor, as modest as ever, but giving some indication in his bearing of the importance of the discovery his wonderful system had aided him in making. He blandly evaded the curiosity of Mr. Briggs, and said it would perhaps be better to reveal the secret in the presence of the Prince and Princess, as his investigations had led him to conclusions that might be unpleasant for one of them to hear, yet were not to be divulged in their absence.
"Just what I suspected," muttered Mr. Briggs, who had long been convinced that the Prince was the actual culprit.
The important gathering took place in the library, the Prince, with the diamonds in his coat pocket, seated at the head of the long table, while the Princess sat at the foot, as far from her husband as she could conveniently get without attracting notice. Miss Baxter stood near a window, reading an important letter from London which had reached her that morning. The tall, thin detective and the portly Mr. Briggs came in together, the London man bowing gravely to the Prince and Princess. Mr.
Briggs took a seat at the side of the table, but the detective remained standing, looking questioningly at Miss Baxter, but evidently not recognizing her as the lady who had come in upon him and his friend when they had entered the train.
"I beg the pardon of your Highness, but what I have to say had better be said with as few hearers as possible. I should be much obliged if this young person would read her correspondence in another room."
"The young woman," said the Prince coldly, "is secretary to her Highness, and is entirely in her confidence."
The Princess said nothing, but sat with her eyes upon the table, apparently taking no note of what was going on. Rich colour came into her face, and, as the keen detective cast a swift glance at her, he saw before him a woman conscious of her guilt, fearing exposure, yet not knowing how to avert it.
"If your Highness will excuse my persistence," began Mr. Taylor blandly.
"But I will not," interrupted the Prince gruffly. "Go on with your story without so much circ.u.mlocution."
The detective, apparently unruffled by the discourtesy he met, bowed profoundly towards the Prince, cleared his throat, and began.
"May I ask your Highness," he said, addressing himself to the Princess, "how much money you possessed just before you left Vienna?"
The lady looked up at him in surprise, but did not answer.
"In Heaven"s name, what has that to do with the loss of the diamonds?"
rapped out the Prince, his hot temper getting once more the better of him. Cadbury Taylor spread out his hands and shrugged his shoulders in protest at the interruption. He spoke with deference, but nevertheless there was a touch of reproach in his tone.
"I am accustomed to being listened to with patience, and am generally allowed to tell my story my own way, your Highness."
"What I complain of is that you are not telling any story at all, but are asking instead a very impertinent question."
"Questions which seem to you irrelevant may be to a trained mind most--"
"Bosh! Trained donkeys! Do you know where the diamonds are?"
"Yes, I do," answered Cadbury Taylor, still imperturbable, in spite of the provocation he was receiving.
"Well, where are they?"
"They are in the vaults of your bank in Vienna."
"I don"t believe it. Who stole them then?"
"They were put there by her Highness the Princess von Steinheimer, doubtless in security for money--"
"What!" roared the Prince, springing to his feet, his stentorian voice ringing to the ceiling. "Do you mean to insinuate, you villain, that my wife stole her own diamonds?"
"If your Highness would allow me to proceed in my own--"
"Enough of this fooling. There are the diamonds," cried the Prince, jerking the box from his pocket and flinging it on the table.
"There!" shouted old man Briggs, bringing his clenched fist down on the oak. "What did I tell you? I knew it all along. The Prince stole the diamonds, and in his excitement yanks them out of his pocket and proves it. That was _my_ opinion all along!"
"Oh, father, father!" moaned the Princess, speaking for the first time.
"How can you say such a thing? My husband couldn"t do a mean action if he tried. The idea of him stealing the diamonds! Not if they were worth a thousand millions and detection impossible."
The Prince, who had been glaring at Mr. Briggs, and who seemed on the point of giving that red-faced gentleman a bit of his mind, turned a softened gaze upon his wife, who rested her arms on the table and buried her face in them.
"Come, come," cried Miss Jennie Baxter, stepping energetically forward; "I imagine everybody has had enough of this. Clear out, Mr. Briggs, and take Mr. Taylor with you; I am sure he has not had any breakfast yet, and he certainly looks hungry. If you hire detectives, Mr. Briggs, you must take care of them. Out you go. The dining-room is ever so much more inviting just now than the library; and if you don"t see what you want, ring for it."
She drove the two speechless men out before her, and, closing the door, said to the Prince, who was still standing bewildered at having his hand forced in this manner,--
"There! Two fools from four leaves two. Now, my dears--I"m not going to Highness either of you--you are simply two lone people who like each other immensely, yet who are drifting apart through foolish misunderstandings that a few words would put right if either of you had sense enough to speak them, which you haven"t, and that"s why I"m here to speak them for you. Now, madame, I am ready to swear that the Prince has never said anything to me that did not show his deep love for you, and if you had overheard us, you would not need me to tell you so. He thinks that you have a fancy for that idiot von Schaumberg--not that I ever saw the poor man; but he is bound to be an idiot, or the Prince wouldn"t be jealous of him. As n.o.body has stolen the diamonds after all this fuss, so no one has stolen the affection of either of you from the other. I can see by the way you look at each other that I won"t need to apologize for leaving you alone together while I run upstairs to pack."
"Oh, but you 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 d.u.c.h.ess 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 a.s.sist her in this task, but she dismissed them one by one, well knowing that if Mr. Hardwick and the proprietor of the _Bugle_ had pet.i.tioned 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 d.u.c.h.ess 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 s.p.a.ce for one of the easy rocking-chairs which the Princess had imported from America, and which Jennie thought were the only really comfortable pieces of furniture the old stronghold possessed, much as she admired the artistic excellence of the mediaeval chairs, tables, and cabinets which for centuries had served the needs of the ancient line that had lived in the Schloss. The rocking-chair was as modern as this morning"s daily paper; its woodwork painted a bright scarlet, its arms like broad shelves, its rockers as sensitively balanced as a marine compa.s.s; in fact, just such a chair as one would find dotted round the vast verandah of an American summer hotel. In this chair sat Miss Jennie, two open letters on her lap, and perplexity in the dainty little frown that faintly ruffled the smoothness of her fair brow. The scene from the high balcony was one to be remembered; but, although this was her last day at the Castle, the girl saw nothing of the pretty town of Meran so far below; the distant chalk-line down the slope beyond which marked the turbulent course of the foaming Adege; the lofty mountains all around, or the further snow-peaks, dazzling white against the deep blue of the sky.
One of the epistles which lay on her lap was the letter she had received from the editor recounting the difficulties he had met with while endeavouring to make arrangements for reporting adequately the d.u.c.h.ess of Chiselhurst"s ball; the other was the still unanswered invitation from the d.u.c.h.ess to the Princess. Jennie was flattered to know that already the editor, who had engaged her with unconcealed reluctance, expected her to accomplish what the entire staff were powerless to effect. She knew that, had she but the courage, it was only necessary to accept the invitation in the name of her present hostess, and attend the great society function as Princess von Steinheimer. Yet she hesitated, not so much on account of the manifest danger of discovery, but because she had grown to like the Princess, and this impersonation, if it came to the knowledge of the one most intimately concerned, as it was almost sure to do, would doubtless be regarded as an unpardonable liberty. As she swayed gently back and forth in the gaudy rocking-chair, she thought of confessing everything to the Princess and asking her a.s.sistance; but pondering on this, she saw that it was staking everything on one throw of the dice. If the Princess refused, then the scheme became impossible, as that lady herself would answer the letter of the d.u.c.h.ess and decline the invitation. Jennie soothed her accusing conscience by telling herself that this impersonation would do no harm to Princess von Steinheimer, or to anyone else for that matter, while it would be of inestimable a.s.sistance to her own journalistic career. From that she drifted to meditation on the inequalities of this life--the superabundance which some possess, while others, no less deserving, have difficulty in obtaining the scant necessities. And this consoling train of thought having fixed her resolve to take the goods the G.o.ds scattered at her feet, or rather threw into her lap, she drew a long sigh of determination as there came a gentle tap at the door of her room, and the voice of the Princess herself said, "May I come in?"
Jennie, a rapid blush flaming her cheeks, sprang to her feet, flung the letters on a table, and opened the door.
The visitor entered, looking attractive enough to be a princess of fairyland, and greeted Miss Baxter most cordially.