THE INCOGNITO. 295 



very happy to tell its name, — ^to proclaim it aloud, — to write 

 it in letters of gold over its magnificent corolla. It is a name 

 ■weU known and respected." 



" I ^^g your pardon. Sir ; I press no further. There may 

 be something political in the matter: perhaps it is the name 

 of some famous exile. I by no means wish to compromise 

 you. Besides, on such subjects, we may not be of the same 

 opinion." 



" Oh ! nothing of the kind, Sir ; the name has no con- 

 nexion with politics : but I have sworn upon my honour not 

 to let it be seen under its proper name. It is here incognito 

 — under the most severe incognito. Perhaps, even already I 

 have said too much. But with everybody— with people for 

 whom I have not the esteem which you inspire me with — I 

 do not go so far; I do not even confess that that tulip is the 

 queen of tulips. I pass before it with indifference — ^an affected 

 indifference — you understand : I designate it under the name 

 of Behecca. But, mind, that is not its real name." 



The amateurs left the garden, and I with them; but on 

 the morrow I returned, and said to him : " But now, really, 

 is this a terrible mystery ?" 



" You shall judge. This tulip, which we will continue to 

 call the Rebecca, was in the possession of a man who had paid 

 very dearly for it ; particularly as, knowing there was another 

 of the kind in Holland, he had gone thither to purchase it, 

 and had crushed it beneath his feet, in order to render his 

 own unique. Every year it excited the envy of the numerous 

 amateurs who flock to see his collection; every year he took 

 cai-e to destroy the offsets which formed around the bulb, and 

 which might have produced more of the sort. For my part, 

 Sir, I dare not tell you how much I offered him for one of 

 these offsets, which he every year poimded in a mortar. I 

 would have injured my property to obtain it — compromised 

 the prospects of my children ! 



" I began to lose all interest in my collection : my most 

 beautiful tulips could not console me for not possessing that 

 one — that one which I dare not name. In vain my friend — 

 ought I to call a man so who allowed me to perish without 

 pity ?— ^in vain my friend said to me, ' Come and see it as 

 often as you please.' I went — I sat down before it for hours 



