Page:The black tulip (IA 10892334.2209.emory.edu).pdf/154

 “‘Crushed, crushed the bulb; my God, my God! crushed!’

“Then, turning towards me he asked, ‘But it was not the only one that he had?’”

“Did he ask that?” inquired Cornelius, with some anxiety.

“‘You think it was not the only one?’ said my father. ‘Very well, we shall search for the others.’

“‘You will search for the others?’ cried Jacob, taking my father by the collar; but he immediately loosed him. Then turning towards me, he continued asking,— ‘And what did that poor young man say?’

“I did not know what to answer, as you had so strictly enjoined me never to allow any one to guess the interest which you are taking in the bulb. Fortunately, my father saved me from the difficulty, by chiming in,—

“‘What did he say? Didn’t he fume and fret?’

“I interrupted him, saying, ‘Was it not natural that he should be furious, you were so unjust and brutal, father?’

“‘Well, now! are you mad?’ cried my father; ‘what immense misfortune is it to crush a tulip-bulb? You may buy a hundred of them in the market of Goreum.’

“‘Perhaps some less precious one than that was!’ I incautiously replied.”

“And what did Jacob say or do at these words?” asked Cornelius.

“At these words, if I must say it, his eyes seemed to flash like lightning.”

“But,” said Cornelius, “that was not all; I am sure he said something in his turn.”

“‘So then, my pretty Rosa,’ he said, with a voice as