'No,' nor make any excuse, nor
talk of going to an hotel, for a suite of rooms is all ready for you,
and your luggage will be there before we are. Now let us enter the
carriage, for I am just pining to hear what it is you have on hand. Some
delicious scandal, I hope."

"No," answered Jennie; "it pertains to Government matters."

"Oh, dear!" cried the Princess; "how tiresome! Politics are so dull."

"I don't think this case is dull," said Jennie; "because it has brought
Austria and England to the verge of war."

"What a dreadful idea! I hadn't heard anything of it. When did this
happen?"

"Less than a month ago," and Jennie related the whole circumstance,
giving a synopsis of the Premier's speech.

"But I see nothing in that speech to cause war," protested the Princess.
"It is as mild as new milk."

"I don't pretend to understand diplomacy," continued Jennie, blushing
slightly as she remembered Lord Donal; and it seemed that the same
thought struck the Princess at the same moment, for she looked
quizzically at Jennie and burst out into a laugh.

"You may laugh," cried the girl; "but I tell you that this is a serious
business. They say it only needed a second 'new milk' speech from the
Premier to have England answer most politely in words of honey, and next
instant the two countries would have been at each other's throats."

"Suppose we write to Lord Donal in St. Petersburg," suggested the
Princess, still laughing, "and ask him to come to Vienna and help us? He
understands all about diplomacy. By the way, Jennie, did Lord Donal ever
find out whom he met at the ball that night?"

"No, he didn't," answered Miss Baxter shortly.

"Don't you ever intend to let him know? Are you going to leave the
romance unfinished, like one of Henry James's novels?"

"It isn't a romance; it is simply a very distressing incident which I
have been trying to forget ever since. It is all very well for you to
laugh, but if you ever mention the subject again I'll leave you and go
to an hotel."

"Oh, no, you won't," chirruped the Princess brightly; "you daren't. You
know I hold all the trump cards; at any time I can send a letter to
Lord Donal and set the poor young man's mind at rest. So you see, Miss
Jennie, you will have to talk very sweetly and politely to me and not
make any threats, because I am like those dreadful persons in the
sensational plays who possess the guilty secrets of other people and
blackmail them. But you are a