at it is perfectly black,
you must find a messenger."

"If it is no more than that, I have a messenger quite ready."

"Is he safe?"

"One for whom I will answer,--he is one of my lovers."

"I hope not Jacob."

"No, be quiet, it is the ferryman of Loewestein, a smart young man of
twenty-five."

"By Jove!"

"Be quiet," said Rosa, smiling, "he is still under age, as you have
yourself fixed it from twenty-six to twenty-eight."

"In fine, do you think you may rely on this young man?"

"As on myself; he would throw himself into the Waal or the Meuse if I
bade him."

"Well, Rosa, this lad may be at Haarlem in ten hours; you will give me
paper and pencil, and, perhaps better still, pen and ink, and I will
write, or rather, on second thoughts, you will, for if I did, being a
poor prisoner, people might, like your father, see a conspiracy in it.
You will write to the President of the Horticultural Society, and I am
sure he will come."

"But if he tarries?"

"Well, let us suppose that he tarries one day, or even two; but it is
impossible. A tulip-fancier like him will not tarry one hour, not one
minute, not one second, to set out to see the eighth wonder of the
world. But, as I said, if he tarried one or even two days, the tulip
will still be in its full splendour. The flower once being seen by the
President, and the protocol being drawn up, all is in order; you will
only keep a duplicate of the protocol, and intrust the tulip to him.
Ah! if we had been able to carry it ourselves, Rosa, it would never have
left my hands but to pass into yours; but this is a dream, which we must
not entertain," continued Cornelius with a sigh, "the eyes of strangers
will see it flower to the last. And above all, Rosa, before the
President has seen it, let it not be seen by any one. Alas! if any one
saw the black tulip, it would be stolen."

"Oh!"

"Did you not tell me yourself of what you apprehended from your lover
Jacob? People will steal one guilder, why not a hundred thousand?"

"I shall watch; be quiet."

"But if it opened whilst you were here?"

"The whimsical little thing would indeed be quite capable of playing
such a trick," said Rosa.

"And if on your return you find it open?"

"Well?"

"Oh, Rosa, whenever it opens, remember that not a moment must be lost in
apprising the President."

"And in apprising you. Yes, I understand."

Rosa sighed, yet without any bitter feeling, but rather like a woman who
begins