CAUSES OF FAILURE 3 



least as is,' informs the public that she ' knows for 

 facts that Mr. Turner of Slough has a dead horse 

 under every Rose-tree, and Pauls & Sons has hun- 

 dreds of young men with gig-umbrellas standing 

 over their Roses when it rains heavy/ Mrs. Brown 

 is delighted, like all around, and ^ means to tell 

 Brown, as soon as ever she sets down in her own 

 parlour, that Marshal Need all over the house, and 

 Catherine Mermaid and Merry Bowman^ round the 

 back door, grow she must and will. But goodness 

 me ! ' she suddenly exclaims, * what a mess o' them 

 reporters ! ' No, my dear madam, they are not 

 reporters — only spectators, putting down in their 

 note-books the names of Roses, with an expression 

 of eager interest which says, I must have that 

 flower or die. 



Every year this enthusiasm increases. It is not 

 easy to collect reliable statistics : some who might 

 furnish them, if they would, shut their mouths 

 closely ; some open them so widely as to justify the 

 amusing sarcasm of a reverend and roseate brother, 

 * When they count their trees, they include the aphis/ 

 Suffice it to say, that where Roses were grown twenty 

 years ago by the dozen they are grown by the thou- 

 sand, and where by the thousand now by the acre. 



But now comes a most important question,— Have 



^ Catherine Mermet and Marie Baumann, 



