The abbé sighed. After a brief pause, he added, "What of Villefaramir? What role did he play in Samouard's misfortune, and what became of him?"
"I know nothing of M. de Villefaramir, save that, after having Samouard arrested, he married Finduilette, the daughter of the Marquis d'Imrahil; and that after that lady's death he remarried Mlle. Béruthielle, a sombre woman with several abominable aristocats. Fortune has smiled on him as on the others; while I alone am wretched and abandoned by the Valards."
"You are mistaken, friend. The justice of Érou and the Valards may sleep, but a moment always comes when it remembers, and in token thereof, this silmaril is yours; for you alone were loyal to Samouard, when all his friends betrayed him. It is worth 50, 000 floquerins."
Buttrebeurrousse gasped with amaze; but his guest had mysteriously vanished.
"50, 000 floquerins," murmured la Carcharotte. "It's money; but it's not a fortune."
M. de Boromir, inspector of prisons, opened the door to find a Forodois with a carrot nose, and two eyes made out of coal, clad in a tweed jacket, a deerstalker, and a strange and decidedly tasteless cardboard cape bewritten atom bombe.
