CAUSES OF SUCCESS. 1 5 



down the letter on my first Impulse as a hoax, and a very 

 poor one. Hoaxes, I have observed, are not what they 

 used to be when I took an active part in them ; and, more- 

 over, the proximity of the ist of April made me more than 

 ordinarily suspicious. Nevertheless, upon a second inspec- 

 tion, I was so impressed by a look and tone of genuine 

 reality that I wrote ultimately to the address indicated, 

 asking, somewhat sarcastically and incredulousl}', as being 

 a shrewd superior person not to be sold at any figure, what 

 sorts of Roses were so kind as to bloom during the month 

 of April at Nottingham, and nowhere else. By return of 

 post I was informed, with much more courtesy than I had 

 any claim to, that the Roses in question Avere grown under 

 glass — where and hozu, the growers would be delighted to 

 show me, if I would oblige them by my company. 



On Easter Monday, in due course, upon a raw and gusty 

 day, when spring and winter, sleet and sunshine, were fight- 

 ing round after round, like Spring and Langan, for victory, — 

 winter now retreating, sobbing and puffing, to his corner, 

 and now coming on in force, black with rage, resistless, 

 hitting out hard and straight, until the sun's eye had a 

 sickly glare, and the cold world trembled in his cruel hug 

 and grip — I went to Nottingham. Again, as the hail beat 



