d the bulb?'

"'Indeed I have.'

"'It is infamous,' said Master Jacob, 'it is odious! You have committed
a great crime!'

"My father was quite dumbfounded.

"'Are you mad, too?' he asked his friend."

"Oh, what a worthy man is this Master Jacob!" muttered Cornelius,--"an
honest soul, an excellent heart that he is."

"The truth is, that it is impossible to treat a man more rudely than he
did my father; he was really quite in despair, repeating over and over
again,--

"'Crushed, crushed the bulb! my God, my God! crushed!'

"Then, turning toward 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
Gorcum.'

"'Perhaps some less precious one than that was!' I quite 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 sweet a
honey,--'so you think that bulb to have been a precious one?'

"I saw that I had made a blunder.

"'What do I know?' I said, negligently; 'do I understand anything
of tulips? I only know--as unfortunately it is our lot to live with
prisoners--that for them any pastime is of value. This poor Mynheer van
Baerle amused himself with this bulb. Well, I think it very cruel to
take from him the only thing that he could have amused himself with.'

"'But, first of all,' said my father, 'we ought to know how he has
contrived to procure this bulb.'

"I turned my ey