Now, however, that he had decided to carry out Lady Pell’s suggestion, and send Luigi abroad for a time, it seemed to him that the boy’s uncle, provided he were willing to undertake the charge, was the proper person into whose hands to entrust him while away from home. He knew nothing whatever to the Captain’s detriment, and he told himself that, as a man of sense, he ought not to allow a foolish prejudice to stand in the way of any project which was likely to prove in the slightest degree beneficial to his grandson. Hence his note to the Captain. It was not without sundry misgivings and in a far from comfortable frame of mind, that next day Captain Verinder journeyed down to Mapleford. A cab conveyed him from the station to the Chase, where he discharged the vehicle, not knowing whether he might be detained half-an-hour, or half-a-day. In any case, a walk back to the station would do him no harm. He had evidently been expected, and was at once shown into the room which was already so familiar to him, where he was presently joined by Sir Gilbert, who, for the first time, welcomed him with an outstretched hand. Augustus Verinder breathed a deep inward sigh of relief. It is not needful to describe in detail the interview that followed. Sir Gilbert at once entered frankly into the affair, explaining to the Captain exactly why he had sent for him and the task which he was desirous that the latter should undertake. September was still young, and another month of fine weather might almost be depended upon. It was his wish that his grandson should spend that month in foreign travel, chiefly in Switzerland, with, perhaps, a glance at the Italian lakes _en passant_. Would it fall in with Captain Verinder’s arrangements to fill the part of Mentor to this latter-day Telemachus during the tour in question? To which the Captain replied, that nothing would afford him greater happiness; and, indeed, his heart leapt for joy at the thought of being able to spend a month on the Continent without being called upon to disburse a shilling of his own. Various matters having been discussed and settled, Sir Gilbert produced his cheque-book, and after having filled up and signed one of the forms, handed it to the Captain. A glance at it showed the latter that it represented a sum of one hundred and seventy pounds. “For your expenses,” said Sir Gilbert; “but I have included in it twenty pounds for Lewis’s outfit, which, seeing that he will be but a month away, ought, I think, to be sufficient.” “Amply sufficient, Sir Gilbert,” assented the Captain as he pocketed the cheque. “I should like Lewis to drop me a line every four or five days, so as to keep me _au courant_ with your movements. I am desirous that you should avoid all large towns, such as Paris and Brussels, either in going or returning. It will be best that you should make your way to Bâle as speedily as possible and decide on your future course after you reach there.”