From behind a jalousie, the unseen Count, veiled in shadow, studied the baron with the aid of a lorgnette that suited his Lidless Eye admirably, and with no less attention than Sacqueville-Danglars had employed in examining the palace, garden, and liveries. "A witless worm he has become," he remarked. "I have passed through fire and death, only to bandy words with a vulgar capitalist." He then summoned Gali and Roguccio.
"How is it," he said with a frown, "that the best oliphants in the Shiré are not in my stables?"
Gali writhed and grovelled on the floor; had he been able to speak, he would have begged the Count "Don't hurt us! Don't let kind master hurt us, Précieux!"
"It is not your fault, Gali," said Monte Fato in Haradric, with an unexpected gentleness in his voice and expression. "If you seem to have erred, think that it was fated to be so, that my éclat might triumph all the more." He then turned his baleful red Eye towards his intendant.
"They were not for sale," said Roguccio. "There are some things one can embezzle once only, he said. I did not rightly know what he meant."
