"M. Belloc?" he said. "What do you want of him?"
"I will tell him when I see him."
"Merci!" he exclaimed, "if you don't keep a civil tongue in your head I will clap you in the guard-room."
Just then an officer coming up asked my business, and I repeated my wish to see M. Belloc.
"Do you know him?" he inquired.
"I am here by his own invitation."
"Well, in that case," looking me up and down as if I had been a strange animal, "you are very unfortunate. M. Belloc left town only an hour ago."
"But he will return?"
"That is quite likely."
"Can you tell me when?"