"Ah! What was it?"

"You said that Don Louis had commissioned you to sell the herd."

"Yes, I did. What then?"

"That was the very subject I wished to speak with him about."

"Bah!"

"Yes, I have found a purchaser."

"What! For the whole herd?"

"Yes, in a lump."

"Stay, stay!" Valentine said, fixing his piercing eyes upon him; "that would singularly simplify matters."

"Would it not?"