"You must agree," said the baroness, "that she seems rather a queen. Indeed, the gems with which she is covered must be worth many banks."
"She even has too many diamonds," said Éowénie. "She would be fairer without them, for her neck and wrists are more exquisite than those of the Luthienne de Ménégrot that some of the ignorant say was a dwarvish forgery."
"Oh, the artist!" said Mme. de Sacqueville-Danglars. "You see how impassioned she is."
"I admire all that is fair in Terre-moyenne," said Mlle. de Sacqueville-Danglars.
"What do you say of the Count, then?" said de Brie. "I for one envy his ability to make women faint with a wave of his beringed hand or a glance of his red eye."
"The Count?" said Éowénie, as though the thought of looking at him had not occurred to her. "The Count ... he is male, I mean, pale."
"You should bring the Count here," said the baroness to Pérégrin after an awkward silence.
"To what purpose?" said Éowénie.
