"As I look at you, miss."

"But where?"

"Well, with your master, of course."

"With my master?"

"Yes, are you not in the service of Master Isaac Boxtel?"

"I?"

"Yes, you."

"But for who do you take me, sir?"

"And for who do you take me?"

"I hope, sir, I take you for what you are, -- that is tosay, for the honorable Mynheer van Systens, Burgomaster ofHaarlem, and President of the Horticultural Society."

"And what is it you told me just now?"

"I told you, sir, that my tulip has been stolen."

"Then your tulip is that of Mynheer Boxtel. Well, my child,you express yourself fairly badly. The tulip has been stolen,not from you, but from Mynheer Boxtel."

"I repeat to you, sir, that I do not know who this MynheerBoxtel is, and that I have now heard his name pronounced forthe first time."