Arafrantz found sleep difficult, so curious was he to learn about the mysterious aristocrat who had first served him hashberry and then vanished, only to return in the company of a notorious vanditto. He finally fell asleep at dawn.
Réginard, meanwhile, was not idle, but took pains to reserve a loggia at the Teatro Alqualonde for a performance of Durinizetti's Eovina di Rohan, with soprano Celebriana, tenor Celebore, and baritone Ulmomelco.
Although he had the fortune of seeing one of the greatest operas of the author of Lutienna di Lammermoor, performed by three of the most renowned artists of Lottaloria, Réginard was dissatisfied. For, despite an attention to his toilette that would have done credit to a Noldo, he had yet to have a single adventure; the charming Lottalorian, Rivendelian, and Minatirettian countesses had clung, not (needless to say) to their husbands, but to their lovers, who were immortal and had irresistible elvish coiffures. For elvish women have the advantage over hobbitesses of being faithful in their infidelity. And yet, Réginard was not only a perfectly elegant cavalier, but a wit; and he was viscount – of newer nobility, admittedly, but today no one cares whether a title goes back to the Second Age or the Fourth. Réginard, therefore, had chosen this expensive loggia in the hopes of conquering at last the heart of a Lottalorian noblewoman. This would ensure not only a love life, but quite possibly a seat on the love life's eagle when Carnival began in earnest.
