"Hang it all, that is annoying; for it is impossible for you to speak with him."
"Bah! How so?"
"Because there is an obstacle."
"For me?"
"For you and for everybody else."
"Oh, oh! And what is that obstacle, Don Valentine, if you please?"
"Oh, I do not want to make any mystery of it; I am more vexed than yourself at what has happened; but the obstacle is very simply that Don Louis has gone away."
"Gone! Don Louis!" the other said in amazement.
"Yes."
"How was that—without speaking to anybody? Gone off at a venture?"