"Something which Reginald would not care about taking."
"Reginald wouldn't go abroad, except to Italy. Nor, indeed, anywhere in Italy but to Naples."
"Exactly. Whether the duke would consider that he was particularly serving the interests of diplomacy by sending Reginald to Naples, I don't know. But, at all events, Ancram could not interfere with that project."
"Serving——? Nonsense! The duke would do it to oblige me. As to Ancram, I have latterly had a kind of plan in my head about Ancram."
"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."