The Prince made a little movement, as much as to say, “Well, that’s it, I remember now.”
And, all the while feigning to be engaged with his book, he watched Rosa with even more attention than he had before.
“And you are fond of flowers?” continued Mynheer van Systens.
“Yes, sir.”
“Then you are an experienced florist, I dare say?”
Rosa hesitated a moment; then with a tone which came from the depth of her heart, she said,—
“Gentlemen, I am speaking to men of honor.”
There was such an expression of truth in the tone of her voice, that Van Systens and the Prince answered simultaneously by an affirmative movement of their heads.
“Well, then, I am not an experienced florist; I am only a poor girl, one of the people, who, three months ago, knew neither how to read nor how to write. No, the black tulip has not been found by myself.”
“But by whom else?”