"My father has indeed a project of marriage in mind, with Mlle. Éowénie Saqueville-Danglars."
"Are you married, Count?" inquired Château-Renard.
"Non," said Monte Fato curtly, and a penetrating observer would have noticed a slight obscuration of his red eye.
"You have at the least a mistress, surely," said De Brie.
"The beautiful and mysterious spider lady?" added Réginard.
"Better than that, I have a slave," said the Count. "You borrow your mistresses at the opera or the mushroom-dinner; mine, I bought and paid for at the marketplace in Quirithe-Oungallant. Admittedly that cost me somewhat more, but I have no complaint to make about that."
"But do you not know, monsieur le comte," said De Brie, "that the government of Aragon-Philippe has abolished slavery, declaring even gardeners and gatherers of mushrooms to be free?"
"And who will tell her?" said Monte Fato.
