He put the ostrich plumes up for sale, and went about it in his favorite way: getting someone else to do it. After he'd been hanging around for a fortnight, and showed no signs of getting ready to leave, Artan (oldest of the Esphahnian brothers who was actually resident there at the time) inquired as to what Jack intended to do , actually, in Paris – making it clear that if the answer was 'cat-burglary' or 'serial rape' the Esphahnians would not think any the less of him – they just needed to know. To demonstrate this open-mindedness, Artan brought Jack up to date on the family saga.