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The Black Tulip, a novel by Alexandre Dumas |
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Chapter 18. Rosa's Lover |
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_ Rosa had scarcely pronounced these consolatory words when a voice was heard from the staircase asking Gryphus how matters were going on. "Do you hear, father?" said Rosa. "What?" "Master Jacob calls you, he is uneasy." "There was such a noise," said Gryphus; "wouldn't you have thought he Then, pointing with his finger towards the staircase, he said to Rosa: After this he locked the door and called out: "I shall be with you Poor Cornelius, thus left alone with his bitter grief, muttered to "Ah, you old hangman! it is me you have trodden under foot; you have And certainly the unfortunate prisoner would have fallen ill but for the In the evening she came back. Her first words announced to Cornelius "And how do you know that?" the prisoner asked, with a doleful look. "I know it because he has said so." "To deceive me, perhaps." "No, he repents." "Ah yes! but too late." "This repentance is not of himself." "And who put it into him?" "If you only knew how his friend scolded him!" "Ah, Master Jacob; he does not leave you, then, that Master Jacob?" "At any rate, he leaves us as little as he can help." Saying this, she smiled in such a way that the little cloud of jealousy "How was it?" asked the prisoner. "Well, being asked by his friend, my father told at supper the whole Cornelius heaved a sigh, which might have been called a groan. "Had you only seen Master Jacob at that moment!" continued Rosa. "I "'You have done that,' he cried, 'you have crushed the bulb?' "'Indeed I have.' "'It is infamous,' said Master Jacob, 'it is odious! You have committed "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 "The truth is, that it is impossible to treat a man more rudely than he "'Crushed, crushed the bulb! my God, my God! crushed!' "Then, turning toward me, he asked, 'But it was not the only one that he "Did he ask that?" inquired Cornelius, with some anxiety. "'You think it was not the only one?' said my father. 'Very well, we "'You will search for the others?' cried Jacob, taking my father by "I did not know what to answer, as you had so strictly enjoined me never "'What did he say? Didn't he fume and fret?' "I interrupted him, saying, 'Was it not natural that he should be "'Well, now, are you mad?' cried my father; 'what immense misfortune is "'Perhaps some less precious one than that was!' I quite incautiously "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 "But," said Cornelius, "that was not all; I am sure he said something in "'So, then, my pretty Rosa,' he said, with a voice as sweet a "I saw that I had made a blunder. "'What do I know?' I said, negligently; 'do I understand anything "'But, first of all,' said my father, 'we ought to know how he has "I turned my eyes away to avoid my father's look; but I met those of "It was as if he had tried to read my thoughts at the bottom of my "Some little show of anger sometimes saves an answer. I shrugged my "But I was kept by something which I heard, although it was uttered in a "Jacob said to my father,-- "'It would not be so difficult to ascertain that.' "'How so?' "'You need only search his person: and if he has the other bulbs, we "Three suckers!" cried Cornelius. "Did you say that I have three?" "The word certainly struck me just as much as it does you. I turned "'But,' said my father, 'perhaps he has not got his bulbs about him?' "'Then take him down, under some pretext or other and I will search his "Halloa, halloa!" said Cornelius. "But this Mr. Jacob of yours is a "I am afraid he is." "Tell me, Rosa," continued Cornelius, with a pensive air. "What?" "Did you not tell me that on the day when you prepared your borders this "So he did." "That he glided like a shadow behind the elder trees?" "Certainly." "That not one of your movements escaped him?" "Not one, indeed." "Rosa," said Cornelius, growing quite pale. "Well?" "It was not you he was after." "Who else, then?" "It is not you that he was in love with!" "But with whom else?" "He was after my bulb, and is in love with my tulip!" "You don't say so! And yet it is very possible," said Rosa. "Will you make sure of it?" "In what manner?" "Oh, it would be very easy!" "Tell me." "Go to-morrow into the garden; manage matters so that Jacob may know, as "Well, and what then?" "What then? We shall do as he does." "Oh!" said Rosa, with a sigh, "you are very fond of your bulbs." "To tell the truth," said the prisoner, sighing likewise, "since your "Now just hear me," said Rosa; "will you try something else?" "What?" "Will you accept the proposition of my father?" "Which proposition?" "Did not he offer to you tulip bulbs by hundreds?" "Indeed he did." "Accept two or three, and, along with them, you may grow the third "Yes, that would do very well," said Cornelius, knitting his brow; "if "Well, that is true; but only think! you are depriving yourself, as I She pronounced these words with a smile, which was not altogether Cornelius reflected for a moment; he evidently was struggling against "No!" he cried at last, with the stoicism of a Roman of old, "it would "Be easy, Mynheer Cornelius," said Rosa, with a sweet mixture of "And even," continued Van Baerle, warming more and more with his Rosa felt her heart sink within her, and her eyes were filling with "Alas!" she said. "What is it?" asked Cornelius. "I see one thing." "What do you see?" "I see," said she, bursting out in sobs, "I see that you love your Saying this, she fled. Cornelius, after this, passed one of the worst nights he ever had in his Rosa was vexed with him, and with good reason. Perhaps she would never We have to confess, to the disgrace of our hero and of floriculture, |