“Good gracious!” cried Jennie, “what language are you speaking? Is it slang, or some foreign tongue?”
“It is pure Chicagoese, Jennie, into which I occasionally lapse even here in prim Vienna. I would like to see a good baseball match, with the Chicago nine going strong. Let us abandon this effete monarchy, Jennie, and pay a visit to America.”
“I’ll go with pleasure if you will tell me first who robbed the war chest. If you can place your dainty forefinger on the spot that conceals two hundred million florins in gold, I’ll go anywhere with you.”
“Oh, yes, that reminds me. I spoke to my husband this morning, and asked him if he could get you enrolled as a special detective, and he said there would be some difficulty in obtaining such an appointment for a woman. Would you have any objection to dressing up as a nice young man, Jennie?”
“I would very much rather not; I hope you didn’t suggest that to the Prince.”
The Princess laughed merrily and shook her head.
“No, I told him that I believed that you would solve the mystery if anyone could, and, remembering what you had done in that affair of my diamonds, my husband has the greatest faith in your powers as an investigator; but he fears the authorities here will be reluctant to allow a woman to have any part in the search. They have very old-fashioned ideas about women in Austria, and think her proper place is presiding over a tea-table.”
“Well, if they only knew it,” said Jennie archly, “some things have been discovered over a teacup within our own memories.”
“That is quite true,” replied the Princess, “but we can hardly give the incident as a recommendation to the Austrian authorities. By the way, have you noticed that no paper in Vienna has said a single word about the robbery of the war chest?”
“It must have been telegraphed here very promptly from London, and yet they do not even deny it, which is the usual way of meeting the truth.”