"All this is highly delightful," said Château-Renard, swishing his tail languidly. "But what I admire most, I confess, is the admirable promptitude with which you are served. In the week since you bought this house, it has undergone a remarkable transformation. For if I am not mistaken, there were piles of refuse everywhere, the door was scarred, the place stank and was full of filth and disorder, and had an extremely tasteless faux-dwarvish décor; whereas today, it bears an extraordinary resemblance to the château of Manvre, but with far better taste."
"Not a week, monsieur; one day," interposed the Count gently. "I was in haste."
"For at least ten years it was uninhabited," continued Château-Renard after everyone had gasped in amaze. "Had it not belonged to the steuard du roi, one would have thought it some accursed house, wherein a terrible crime had been committed."
Villefaramir gulped down his wine with the air of a hobbite caught stealing a palantir in order to spy out the cheapest mushroom-shops.
"There was especially a chamber, very simple in appearance," said Monte Fato, "that seemed to me, I know not why, as dramatic as possible."
"In what way?" said De Brie.
