At eleven o'clock, the funeral vehicles rolled onto the pavement of the courtyard, and rue Rat-Dinent filled with the murmurs of the crowd, equally avid of the joys and of the grief of the rich, and who ran to the interment of a tycoon's daughter with the same haste as to the marriage of a duchess to an eloped dwarf.
Little by little, the mortuary salon was filled, and one saw first the arrival of our old acquaintances, c'est-à-dire De Brie, Château-Renard, Pierre-Jacques-Philippe-Michel Boyen-Xènes-Baguines, then all the luminaries of the bench, of cuisine hobbitaine, and of the army; for M. de Villefaramir occupied, less by his social position than by his personal merit, one of the first ranks in the Annuminasian monde.
As a pure Annuminasian, Villefaramir regarded Digue-des-morts-Boubles-savon as the only cemetery worthy to receive the mortal coil of an Annuminasian; he had, therefore, bought a mausoleum there by the name of Rat-Dinent, which is Sindarin for "Dinner of rats".† One read on the façade of the mausoleum FAMILLE D'IMRAHIL ET VILLEFARAMIR; for such had been the wish of the poor Finduilette, mother of Valartine.
† Research proves Dunadas to have been correct in this, despite Saleau-Fauxchangeur's claim that it means "Silent Street," which is an imposture completely devoid of poesy.
