"Listen, Réginard. Twenty-four years ago, I returned joyful and proud to my fatherland. I had a fiancée, Réginard, a holy young woman whom I adored, and I was bringing for my fiancée wealth amassed laboriously by work without rest. This money was for her, I had destined it for her, and knowing how treacherous is the sea, I had buried our treasure under the Party Tree in the little garden of my father's house in Hobbitonne.
"Eh bien, Réginard, this money that formerly was to aid the woman I adored, voilà today, by a marvellous chance, or the design of Luthienne, whose needlework was indeed almost as famous as her illicit affairs, serves the same purpose.
"Do not be blinded by pride or resentment; do not scorn pity that is the gift of a gentle heart."
Rosédès looked to heaven with an ineffable expression, and said, "I accept; he has the right to pay the dowry I will spend in a dragonnade."
Having accompanied his seconds home, the Count returned to his palais, where he was murmuring "Mon Précieux" when the Roi des sorciers opened the door and announced "The Count de Pérégrin!"
"Conduct M. de Pérégrin to the salon," commanded the Count.
