Paving,' and I just see'd that chap with the tall hat alooking at
it suspicious."
After this we separated. I retired into my corner, while Woodden took
his stand by the table, with one eye fixed on what he called the "O.
Paving" and the other on me and my tin case.
An odd fish truly, I thought to myself. Positive, the old woman;
Comparative, his master; Superlative, the orchid tribe. Those were his
degrees of affection. Honest and brave and a good fellow though, I
bet.
The sale languished. There were so many lots of one particular sort of
dried orchid that buyers could not be found for them at a reasonable
price, and many had to be bought in. At length the genial Mr. Primrose
in the rostrum addressed the audience.
"Gentlemen," he said, "I quite understand that you didn't come here
to-day to buy a rather poor lot of Cattleya Mossi?. You came to buy,
or to bid for, or to see sold the most wonderful Odontoglossum that
has ever been flowered in this country, the property of a famous firm
of importers whom I congratulate upon their good fortune in having
obtained such a gem.
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