"I don't know anything about it," continued Van Mitten; "but, at any rate, in our last altercation I wished to resist, and I did resist, like a regular Kéraban!"
"By Allah, that is impossible!" cried the individual referred to, who knew himself thoroughly.
"More strongly than any Kéraban," added Van Mitten.
"Mahomet protect me!" replied the other. "Do you mean to assert that you can be more obstinate than I?"
"It seems improbable on the face of it," said Ahmet, in a tone that went to his uncle's heart.
"You will soon see," replied Van Mitten quietly.
"We shall not see that!" cried Kéraban.
"Will you permit me to finish? It was concerning tulips that the discussion arose between me and my wife, about those beautiful tulips—so dear to amateurs—Genners, which grow straight on the stalk, and of which there are more than a hundred varieties. I had none which cost me less than a thousand florins a bulb."
"Eight thousand piastres," said Kéraban, who was accustomed to reckon in Turkish money.
"Yes, about that," replied the Dutchman. "Now Madame Van Mitten took it into her head one day to root up a Valentia, in order to put an Œil de Soleil in its place. This was too much. I objected. She insisted. I endeavoured to seize her; she escaped, and, rushing upon the Valentias, tore one up by the roots."
"Cost! Eight thousand piastres," muttered Kéraban.
"Then," continued Van Mitten, "I precipitated myself on an Œil de Soleil, and broke it."
"Cost! Sixteen thousand piastres," said Kéraban.
"My wife destroyed a second Valentia."
"Twenty-four thousand piastres," replied Kéraban, as if he were calling over his books at his counting-house.
"I responded with another Œil de Soleil."
"Thirty-two thousand piastres."
"Then the battle became general," said Van Mitten, "till madame's ammunition was exhausted. I received two splendid 'cloves' on my head."
