"Madame la baronne," said Sacqueville-Danglars, "Permit that I present to you M. le comte de Monte Fato, who has been recommended to me by my half-elven agents in Lottaloria in the most insistent terms. I will only add that he comes to Annuminas with the intention of spending six million floquerins in a year; that promises a series of balls, soirées, dîners, medianoches, and mushroom-popping contests, in which I hope monsieur le comte will not forget us, as we ourselves will not forget him in our little fêtes."
"You arrive in a perfectly dreadful season, monsieur le comte," said the baroness. "Annuminas is detestable in summer: there are no balls, no mushroom soirées, no auctions, no golfimboules; only hordes of disagreeable dwarf-tourists. The Opéra elfique is in Forodeterre cooling the Snowblemen; the Opéra du Shiré left for the havens long ago, and is everywhere except Annuminas; and as for the Theatre-Hobbites, you know it's nowhere. All that remain are a few pitiful races. Will you partake in races, monsieur le comte?"
"I shall do everything that one does in Annuminas, madame la baronne," replied Monte Fato, "if I am so fortunate as to find someone who can instruct me in the habits of the Shiré."
At this moment, Madame de Sacqueville-Danglars' favourite chambermaid entered and whispered in her ear, whereat the baroness became paler than the celebrated forodois hero, Frosty-Nelson.
