“A clever woman--a damned clever woman,” he said. “And what a presence! What a personality! Did you notice that to every question I put to her she had an answer--pat! Yet I don’t believe a word she said, or that she or her parents were ever in Australia. There is some mystery about that woman, and about that fellow Stapleton who is always in her pocket.” They had turned into Oxford Street, when Blenkiron suddenly caught his companion by the sleeve. “Look,” he said, “there goes young La Planta, on his way to see our friends. That lad, too, I have grave doubts about!” CHAPTER IX. BEFRIENDING A REPORTER. Though several weeks had passed, no trace had been discovered of Mrs. Mervyn-Robertson’s missing property. For reasons of her own she had prevented any mention of the robbery being made in the newspapers, and apparently even the Metropolitan Secret Agency had this time failed to make good. Preparations were in progress for the great ball to be given at the Albert Hall by Aloysius Stapleton and his friend, young La Planta, and as Jessica still said she preferred not to act as hostess on that occasion, Stapleton had succeeded in enlisting the services of a well-known peeress who, helped by friends of her own, would receive his guests on the eventful night. It was expected that “all London” would be there, and as the ball had been organized by Stapleton and La Planta ostensibly in aid of some charitable object, the newspaper press had laid itself out to give plenty of publicity. “If I had arranged to make it a private ball,” Stapleton observed to Jessica one evening, “it would have cost me an enormous sum, and hundreds who have now bought tickets would not have done so. I was right to take your advice--you remember telling me the way to make a ball of this sort an unqualified success, and at the same time run it at other people’s expense, was to make it a ‘charity’ concern; get the newspapers to print columns of fancy stories about it and publish lists of names of people with titles likely to be present; and let it be known that women of high social standing would receive the guests. That advice was excellent, Jessica. There has been such a rush for tickets that if it continues we shall have to stop selling.” “Have I ever given you bad advice?” Jessica asked with a smile. “In matters of this sort, and for that matter in most cases, a clever woman’s advice is the safest advice to follow. You have not yet asked me what I am going to wear. It is too late now to tell you. But this I can say--my dress will surprise you.” “I don’t want to be surprised.” “Naturally. Nobody does. But I have a reason for wanting to surprise you at your own ‘charity’ ball,” and she laughed. “You will find out why, later. Have you any idea what Cora Hartsilver and her precious friend, Yootha Hagerston, intend to wear?” “Not the slightest. How should I? And why should their dresses interest you?”