"What is your plan, Excellency?" inquired the vanditto.
"There is nothing that 435455667758589960605093298299490099818899098778889977788688373455 floquerins and the Ring of Power can't amend," laughed the aristocrat.
"Morgot!" thought Arafrantz. "There can be no further doubt; it is he."
"How will we know that your Excellency has succeeded?"
"If I succeed, the curtains in the windows of the Palazzo Tralalalalli facing the execution square will be adorned by a large red eye bearing a curious resemblance to a certain organ of the female anatomy," replied Éarendeau.
"If you obtain this grace for me, I will no longer be your devoted ally, but your slave, as surely as if I bore one of the nine rings," said the vanditto.
"There is no if where I am concerned, mortal," replied the aristocrat coldly.
With that the two parted. Shortly thereafter, Arafrantz heard his name being called by Réginard. He spent the trip home listening to Réginard's learned disquisition on Galadriella's corsets – an account taken at second hand from Calaquendius and Plinion – with a highly impertinent indifference.
