"It was really an extraordinary affair," said the Countess. "Imagine that I felt such a lively sympathy for the sudronique horse and the invisible rider in black that, when they arrived at the finish line far ahead of the rest of the pack, I applauded like a madwoman. And imagine my astonishment when the diaphanous jockey appeared – or at any rate, his clothes did – on my doorstep, and handed me the mithrile cup of Coulaïde, with a small card on which was written, For the Countess. G ... Jared Hasselhoff, devoted vampire."
"Ah, that's it precisely: the vampire of the opera in Galadrona," said Réginard
"But why did he send the cup to me?"
"Firstly, madame la comtesse, because I have spoken much of you to him, and secondly, because the G that begins your name also begins gallant in our tongue."
"And what impression has his arrival made in Annuminas?" said the Countess, slightly changing the subject.
"His coming was like an avalanche in the mountains, like a strong west wind that shook the boughs of the bien pensants," said Réginard. "Then, after a week, gossip returned to the fidelity of Angélique Coton and the theft of the Viscountess de Braceguirdelle's faux-diamond snuff-box that was said to be made by one of her troll-paramours, and no one has spoken of anything else."
