AT A ROSE-SHOW. 269 



The Irascible ExJdbitor loses no time in verifying his pre- 

 sence to our eyes and ears. Talking so rapidly that " a 

 man ought to be all ear to follow," as Schiller said of 

 Madame de Stael, and so loudly that he may be heard in 

 all parts of the show, he is declaiming to a policeman, a 

 carpenter, and two under-gardeners, who are nudging each 

 other in the ribs, against the iniquitous villany of " three 

 thundering muffs" who recently awarded him a fourth prize 

 for the finest lot of Roses he ever cut. He communicates 

 to the policeman, who evidently regards him as being 

 singularly advanced in liquor, considering the time of day, 

 his firm belief that the censors in question were brought up 

 from a coal-mine on the morning of the exhibition, and had 

 never seen a Rose before. He does hope that, on the pre- 

 sent occasion, somebody will be in office who knows the 

 difference between that flower and a pumpkin. Here he is 

 informed that Mr Trueman, a most reliable Rosarian, is to 

 be one of the judges. He is delighted to hear it. Mr True- 

 man is a practical, honourable man ; and, having arranged 

 his Roses with a running accompaniment of grunts and 

 snorts, he goes in quest of that individual, expresses entire 

 confidence in his unerring judgment, and the happiness 

 which he feels in submitting his Roses to a man who can 



