"For the Count of Monte Fato!" cried Meurtier, throwing away the book and the cigar-box and hurling himself in front of the visitor. "I believe well that we are visible for him!" (The Count smiled.) "A thousand thanks, monsieur le comte, for not forgetting your promise." And the young officer shook the Count's hand with such force, that had the latter been wearing the Ring, he must have lost it and perhaps been mutilated as well; so that he could not doubt that he was awaited with impatience and received with enthusiasm.
"Come in," said Meurtier. "I will introduce you; a man like you ought not to be announced by a domestic as if he were merely a trifle that had not even been finished. My sister is in the garden concocting something out of mushrooms; my brother-in-law, who is never far away from Bilbette, especially when there is any male company in the house, is reading the flamewars in Le Gnousegroupe."
A young woman of between twenty and twenty-five years, who was making a highly artistic sculpture out of various domestic and exotic fungi, raised her head; on seeing the stranger, she cried out, "Oh, comme ouaoue!"
"Do not derange yourself, my sister," said Meurtrier. "Monsieur le comte has not been in Annuminas but two or three days, but he already knows who is la Silmarilette du Marais; and if he does not, you will teach him." (The Marais was a district renowned for its mushroom groves, cultivated by the family of Magot since the reign of Aragon XIII. The Magot family were also known for their vicious attack poodles, which had played a crucial role in the restoration of the Telbourbons.)
