“Tulip bulbs?” asked Mrs. Gabriel, opening the car door.
“Just some culls that Hanny gave me.”
As Vevi slid into the car, she noticed that canvas bags, very similar to the one she carried, were piled on the floor.
“I see you bought some tulip bulbs yourself,” she remarked. “Or were they given to you?”
“I bought them,” Mrs. Gabriel answered shortly. “They are special stock. The shipment I ordered direct from Holland came today.”
“Are they nicer bulbs than Mr. Van Der Lann’s Golden Beauty?”
“Mr. Van Der Lann!” replied Mrs. Gabriel. “His tulips are greatly over-rated. Even if he did win a blue ribbon, I prefer to do business with Mr. and Mrs. Mattox.”
Now Vevi thought that Mrs. Gabriel could not possibly have bought bulbs that would produce flowers nicer than the Golden Beauty. However, she was too polite to say so.
She dropped her bag of culls down on the floor among the other sacks. Then, curious to see if the Mattox bulbs were larger than the culls Hanny had given her, she started to open one of Mrs. Gabriel’s bags.
“Don’t do that,” the woman reprimanded her sharply.