Two days later, the Nouvelles de Brie reported that the Giles-Chrysophylace partnership was intact and that a palantiric signal, ill interpreted on account of a vaguely preternatural fog, had led to this error. Sacqueville-Danglars had lost a million mushroom-lions.
All Arnor was in feverish anticipation of the Count's soirée. Days passed and The Day drew nearer; and tongues began to wag in the Annuminasian monde. Bizarre wagons with bizarre packages rolled into Annuminas and toiled up the Montagne to Barroue-Don. They were driven by outlandish folk: orcs with long burnouses and fezzes, singing strange songs in minor keys. The inhabitants of Barroue-Don were intensely interested and generally envied. Pierre-Jacques-Philippe-Michel Boyen-Xènes-Baguines stopped even pretending to write an article on barroue-wight smoking customs. Anxiety was intense. Then, Saturday, 22 Yavannidor, the day of the Count's dinner, actually dawned.
Meurtrier Morrie was the first to arrive, on a winged horse named Pegandour that Monte Fato had given him as a birthday present.
Next to come, in a coupé drawn by two oliphants, were Lothien De Brie and the Baroness de Sacqueville-Danglars, who handed the minister's secretary a billet-doux, unobserved by all save the Count, whose Eye, if he bent it thither, could perceive much that passed in the minds of roués, even of those whose aristocratic lineage was not fabricated. She then turned to Morrie and said, "Monsieur, if you were my friend, I would ask whether that horse was for sale."
