252 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



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 thunder- 

 ing muffs ' who recently awarded him a fourth prize 

 for the finest lot of Roses he ever cut. He com- 

 municates to the policeman, who evidently regards 

 him as being singularly advanced in liquor, consider- 

 ing 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 present occasion, 

 somebody will be in office who knows the dift'erence 

 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. Trueman is a practical, honourable man ; and, 

 having arranged his Roses with a running accompani- 

 ment 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 sub- 

 mitting his Roses to a man who can appreciate them, 

 instead of to such a set of old women as were recently 



judging at , when they ought to have been in 



bed. 



Alas for our poor feeble humanity ! — two hours 

 later Mr. Irascible, finding no prize-card on his boxes, 



