"About a place for him?" "Well, yes; a place, if you like to call it so. What do you say to his coming abroad with us in the autumn?" "Eh! Coming abroad with us?" "Of course we should have to pay all his expenses. But I think he would be amusing, and perhaps useful. He talks French very well, and is lively and good-tempered." "I have no doubt he would be a most charming travelling companion----" "I don't know about that. But I should take him out of kindness, and to do him a service." "But I don't see of what use such a plan would be to him, Belinda." "Well, I've an idea in my head, I tell you. I have kept my eyes open, and I fancy I see a chance for Ancram." "You are very mysterious, my dear!" said Lord Seely, with a little shrug. "Well, least said, soonest mended. I shall be mysterious a little longer. And, meanwhile, I think we might make him the offer to take him to Switzerland with us, since you have no objection." "I have no objection, certainly." "I think I shall mention it to him, then. And, if I were you, I wouldn't bother the duke about him just yet." "But what is this notion of yours, Belinda?" The exclamation rose to my lady's lips, "How inquisitive men are!" but she suppressed it. It was the kind of speech which particularly angered Lord Seely, who much disliked being lumped in with his fellow-creatures on the ground of common qualities. Even a compliment, so framed that my lord was supposed to share it with a number of other persons, would have displeased him. So my lady said, "Well, now, Valentine, you'll begin to laugh at me, very likely, but I believe I'm right. I think Castalia is very well inclined to like this young fellow. And she might do worse." "Castalia! Like him? Why, you don't mean----?" "Yes, I do," returned my lady, nodding her head. "That's just what I do mean. I'm sure, the other evening, she became quite sentimental about him." "Good heavens, Belinda! But the idea is preposterous." "Yes; I knew you'd say so at first. That's why I didn't want to say anything about it just yet awhile." "But allow me to say that, if you had any such idea in your head, it was only proper that it should be mentioned to me." "Well, I have mentioned it." Lord Seely clasped his hands behind his back, and walked up and down the room in a stiff, abrupt kind of march. At length he stopped opposite to her ladyship, who was assiduously soothing Fido; Fido having, for some occult reason, become violently exasperated by his master's walking about the room. "Why, in the first place----do send that brute away," said his lordship, sharply. "There! he's quiet now. Good Fido! Good boy! Mustn't bark and growl at master. Yes; you were saying----?" "I was saying that, in the first place, Castalia must be ten years older than this boy." "About that, I should say. But if they don't mind that, I don't see what it matters to us." "And he has not any means, nor any prospect of earning any, that I can see."