o
bright and clever as we imagine ourselves to be.

In the afternoon the Princess entered Jennie's sitting-room carrying in
her hand a bunch of letters.

"There!" she cried, "while you have been resting I have been working,
and we are not going to allow any time to be lost. I have written
with my own hand invitations to about two dozen people to our tea on
Thursday; among others, the wife of the Premier, Countess Stron. I
expect you to devote yourself to that lady and tell me the result of
the conversation after it is over. Have you been talking consolation to
Gretlich? I came up here half an hour ago, and it seemed to me I heard
the sound of crying in this room."

"Oh, yes," said Jennie, "she has been telling me all her trouble. It
seems she had a lover in the army, and he has been killed in some
accident in the Treasury."

"What kind of an accident?"

"Gretlich said there had been an explosion there."

"Dear me! I never heard of it. It is a curious thing that one must come
from London to tell us our own news. An explosion in the Treasury! and
so serious that a soldier was killed! That arouses my curiosity, so I
shall just sit down and write another invitation to the wife of the
Master of the Treasury."

"I wish you would, because I should like to know something further about
this myself. Gretlich seems to have had but scant information regarding
the occurrence, and I should like to know more about it so that I might
tell her."

"We shall learn all about it from madame, and I must write that note at
once for fear I forget it."

CHAPTER XIII. JENNIE INDULGES IN TEA AND GOSSIP.

On Thursday afternoon there was a brilliant assemblage in the spacious
salon of the Princess von Steinheimer. The rich attire of the ladies
formed a series of kinetographic pictures that were dazzling, for
Viennese women are adepts in the art of dress, as are their Parisian
sisters. Tea was served, not in cups and saucers, as Jennie had been
accustomed to seeing it handed round, but in goblets of clear, thin
Venetian glass, each set in a holder of encrusted filigree gold. There
were all manner of delicious cakes, for which the city is celebrated.
The tea itself had come overland through Russia from China and had not
suffered the deterioration which an ocean voyage produces. The decoction
was served clear, with sugar if desired, and a slice of lemon, and
Jennie thought it the most delicious brew she had ever tasted.

"I am s