214 A BOOK ABOUT THE GAEDEN. 



in their glory. It seemed a cruel wrong to decapitate 

 them, and yet why should they be as lost to the 

 general public as though they " sprang in deserts 

 where no men abide " ? II faut sonjfrir pour ctre 

 admired ; and, moreover, Jones's time was come. 



We reached the place of exhibition, my gardener 

 and I, at least three hours before there was the 

 slightest necessity, and a considerable time before 

 the doors were opened of the hall in which the show 

 was held. There was no trace to be seen of our 

 adversary, and a lively hope began to gleam in my 

 ungenerous breast that possibly he had come to grief. 

 Had a special messenger arrived to inform us that 

 the Reverend Jones's market-cart had broken down 

 abruptly, and that his roses were strewed over the 

 king's high-road, I fear that I should not have ex- 

 perienced that large amount of earnest sympathy 

 which is due to a clergyman in distress. Nay, I blush 

 to confess that a vision of beetles nibbling at Jones's 

 favourite blooms presented itself to my imagination, 

 and that I did not repel it, as I ought to have done. 



Communicating with the hall were several ante- 

 rooms, in which we prepared our flowers for exhibi- 

 tion ; and just as, after a most elaborate and careful 

 arrangement, I emerged from one of these, proudly 

 bearing my precious freight before me oh ! what 

 do you think that, to my intense dismay and horror, 

 I confronted in that wretched lobby ? Jones, with a 

 brand-new box, the facsimile of my own, zinc tubes, 

 green moss, and everything in the highest style of 

 art ! We met face to face, like Box and Cox with 

 their two tea-trays, muttered a mutual " How d'ye 



