"I will do as you wish. And I beg you now to excuse me. But if anything happens to any of my personal friends—"
"Well?" haughtily from Olga.
"Well, I will put the matter in the hands of the police."
"But so long as your personal friends are not concerned?"
"I shall then of necessity remain deaf and blind. It is one of the penalties I must pay for my folly. I wish you good day."
"And also good riddance," murmured Olga under her breath, as she arose and started for the hallway.
Thus it was that when Norton went to the office the next afternoon he found a broad white envelope on his desk. Indifferently he opened the same and his eyes bulged. "Princess Parlova requests" and so forth and so on. Then he shrugged. The chief had probably asked for the invitation and he would have to write up the doings, a phase of reportorial work eminently distasteful to him. He went up to the city desk.
"Can't you find some one else to do this stuff?" he growled to the city editor.
The city editor glanced at the card and crested envelope. "Good lord, man! Nobody in this office had anything to do with that. What luck! Our Miss Hayes tried all manner of schemes, but was rebuffed on all sides. How the deuce did you chance to get one?"
"Search me," said the bewildered Norton.