"Centerpiece”, bloomed in a household in Rotterdam, the United Provinces. Two years since the end of their reign, the Tulps remained a popular dinner table gossip. Who was to be accounted for the cult of Flora? After all, how could a madness of such a magnanimous scale rise amongst civilized citizens? The bankrupts started the fraud, one said— after all, they were not the most pious devotees of the sacred Dutch virtue of humble living within one’s means to begin with. That’s not true, another argued, on the contrary, the rich and filthy were the puppeteers behind the fluctuating prices. Then the Jews are to blame for, chimed another. The Jews and Mennonites are always on the lookout for opportunities to profit. Standing in the stale water of a vase placed in the center of the dinner table, she listened to all of it as she dried a slow, slow death.
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