When Mrs. Harkaway's maid returned to the villa, she got scolded for being so long upon an errand of some importance with which she had been entrusted. Thereupon, she was prepared with twenty excuses, all of which were any thing but the truth. The words of warning which the brigand had called after her had not been without their due effect. "She had been detained," she said, "by the Contessa Maraviglia for the letter which she brought back to Mr. Mole." The letter was an invitation to a grand ball which was to be given by the contessa at the Palazzo Maraviglia, and to which the Harkaways were going. Dick Harvey had been at work in this business, and had made the contessa believe indirectly that Mr. Mole was a most graceful dancer, and that it would be an eternal shame for a bal masque to take place in the neighbourhood without being graced by his-Mole's- presence."