THE TWO FLORISTS. 247 



Science, thauks to travellers, is just as far advanced on this 

 point as an inhabitant of La Place Sulpice, who had never 

 been any further than the Luxembourg. 



Just now I wrote or pronounced the name of Buddlea ; for 

 it always appears to me in my unpremeditated, off-hand 

 letters, that I am quietly chattering by the fireside. 



I knew two amateurs of flowers who were animated by 

 a noble and touching emulation in their cultivation. 



The pleasure of the one, when obtaining a new flower, was 

 not to see the flower, to watch the progress of its vegetation, 

 to admire the splendour of its colours, to breathe its perfume, 

 - — ^the pleasure, the true pleasure, was to show it to the other, 

 and to see him envy him the possession of it. Happy in 

 having the plant, he was still more happy that the other had 

 it not. A friendship founded upon such bases might last 

 for a long time, but could not be secure from occasional 

 tempests. 



There came a year in which one of our two horticulturists 

 assumed a more reserved air than common; he looked like 

 a balloon ready to burst ; to such a degree was he puffed out 

 with ill concealed satisfaction and dangerously rarefied, vanity. 



The other affected a modest air, perpetual admiration of 

 the acquisitions, or the jewels of his rival. 



For persons who knew them both this was a certain sign 

 that each of them expected the blooming of something that 

 would be very disagreeable to his friend, the flowering of some 

 grief for him: each, in the meantime, made extraordinary 

 concessions to the other. People don't willingly lose a friend 

 in whom they are sure speedily to inspire so much envy. 



The younger of the two, M. OUbruck, came to ask pardon 

 of M. Esmond, for a pleasantry of very bad taste which he had 

 committed the year before. 



This was the joke. 



That year, after having reciprocally invited each other 

 to visit successively their liyaoinths, their tulips, their ane- 

 mones, their auriculas, their roses, their pinks j in a word, 

 all the flowers allowed to be flowers, in the same manner, as 

 we have before said, only certain animals are allowed by 

 sportsmen to be game, neither had obtained the least ad- 

 vantage over the other. A conqueror in hyacinths, M. 



