sleigh's ball to-night?"

"I hope so--if I'm not wanted at Headquarters," answered Dick, looking
at the girl in undisguised admiration.

"Ah, that Headquarters of yours! It claims so much of your time!" she
pouted. "But these are times when the Intelligence Service demands
much of its men, is it not so?"

"Who told you I was attached to Intelligence?" demanded Dick bluntly.

She laughed mockingly. "Do you think that is not known all over
Washington?" she asked. "It is strange that Intelligence should act
like the--the ostrich, who buries his head in the sand and thinks that
no one sees him because it is hidden."

Dick looked at the girl in perplexity. During the past month he had
completely lost his head and heart over her, and he was trying to view
her with the dispassionate judgment that his position demanded.

As the niece of the Slovakian Ambassador, Mademoiselle Valmy had the
entry to Washington society. The Ambassador was away on leave, and she
had appeared during his absence, but she had been accepted
unquestionably at the Embassy, where she had taken up her quarters,
explaining--as the Ambassador confirmed by cable--that she had sailed
under a misconception as to the date of his leave.

* * * * *

Brunette, beautiful, charming, she had a score of hearts to play with,
and yet Dick flattered himself that he stood first. Perhaps the others
did too.

"Of course," the girl went on, "with the Invisible Emperor threatening
organized society, you gentlemen find yourselves extremely busy. Well,
let us hope that you locate him and bring him to book."

"Sometimes," said Dick slowly, "I almost think that you know something
about the Invisible Emperor."

Again she laughed merrily. "Now, if you had said that my sympathies
were with the Invisible Emperor, I might have been surprised into an
acknowledgment," she answered. "After all, he does stand for that
aristocracy that has disappeared from the modern world, does he not?
For refinement of manners, for beauty of life, for all those things
men used to prize."

"Likewise for the existence of the vast body of the nation in
ignorance and poverty, in filth and squalor," answered Dick. "No, my
sympathies are with law and order and democracy, and your Invisible
Emperor and his crowd are simply a gang of thieves and hold-up men."

"Be careful!" A warning fire burned in the girl's eyes. "At least, it
is known that the Emperor's ears are l