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When this was done and money matters had been adjusted between them, Jennie gave the girl five pounds more than was due to her, and saw her into the railway carriage, well pleased with the reward. A hansom brought Jennie to her flat, and so ended the exhausting episode of the Duchess of Chiselhurst's ball.
The detective selected a packet of papers, one of many which occupied the end of his table. He slipped from it a rubber band which held the documents together. "The first act of the drama, if we may call it so, began at the Duchess of Chiselhurst's ball." "The Duchess of Chiselhurst's ball!" echoed Jennie, with a shudder. "Oh, dear!" The detective looked up at her.
Jennie leaned back in her chair, closed her eyes for a moment, and breathed quickly. "I am afraid," she said at last, "that I do not remember with sufficient minuteness the details you have given me, to be able to advise. I can only suggest that Lord Donal met the Princess herself at the Duchess of Chiselhurst's ball.
It is said that a woman magnificently robed is superior to all earthly tribulations. Such was the case with Jennie as she left her carriage, walked along the strip of carpet which lay across the pavement under a canopy, and entered the great hall of the Duke of Chiselhurst's town house, one of the huge palaces of Western London.
Now, of course, the Princess being a woman and a young woman would naturally be very anxious to attend the Duchess of Chiselhurst's ball, wouldn't she?" "One would think so." "And, as you have just said, she has a bear of a husband, a good deal older than herself, who does not in the least care for such functions as that to which the Princess was invited.
This inquisitive person, who had come from Paris, wished particularly to know whether I had been seen about the castle during the week in which the Duchess of Chiselhurst's ball took place; and so this leads me to suppose that some one is making inquiries for you. It must be either Lord Donal Stirling or the Duke of Chiselhurst, but I rather think it is the former.
Can you get us a full report of the Duchess of Chiselhurst's ball, written so convincingly that all the guests who read it will know that the writer was present?" "It is entirely a question of money, Mr. Hardwick." "Most things are. Well, we are prepared to spend money to get just what we want." "How much?" "Whatever is necessary." "That's vague. Put it into figures."
The girl caught her breath, but said nothing. "I explained to him the reasons I have for believing that it was actually the Princess von Steinheimer whom he met at the Duchess of Chiselhurst's ball. He laughed at me; there was no convincing him. He said that theory was more absurd than the sending him a picture of a housemaid as that of the lady he met at the ball.
"I need not ask you if you were there, for no person but one who was present, and one who knew how to describe, could have produced such a vivid account of it all. How did you get in?" "In where?" murmured Jennie drowsily. She found difficulty in keeping her mind on what he was saying. "To the Duchess of Chiselhurst's ball."
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 Duchess of Chiselhurst's ball; the other was the still unanswered invitation from the Duchess to the Princess.
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