And though, by those unversed in the intricacies of the human heart, and
unacquainted with the especial hearts of prime ministers and right-hand
men, it might have seemed natural that Mr. Stirn, as he stood still, hat
in hand, in the middle of the road, stung, humbled, and exasperated by
the mortification he had received from the lips of Randal Leslie, would
have felt that that young gentleman was the proper object of his
resentment, yet such a breach of all the etiquette of diplomatic life as
resentment towards a superior power was the last idea that would have
suggested itself to the profound intellect of the premier of Hazeldean.
Still, as rage, like steam, must escape somewhere, Mr. Stirn, on feeling
--as he afterwards expressed it to his wife--that his "buzzom was a
burstin'," turned with the natural instinct of self-preservation to the
safety-valve provided for the explosion; and the vapours within him
rushed into vent upon Lenny Fairfield. He clapped his hat on his head
fiercely, and thus relieved his "buzzom."

"You young willain! you howdaeious wiper! and so all this blessed Sabbath
afternoon, when you ought to have been in church on your marrow-bones, a
praying for your betters, you has been a fitting with a young gentleman,
and a wisiter to your master, on the wery place of the parridge
hinstitution that you was to guard and pertect; and a bloodying it all
over, I declares, with your blaggard little nose!" Thus saying, and as
if to mend the matter, Mr. Stirn aimed an additional stroke at the
offending member; but Lenny mechanically putting up both arms to defend
his face, Mr. Stirn struck his knuckles against the large brass buttons
that adorned the cuff of the boy's coat-sleeve,--an incident which
considerably aggravated his indignation. And Lenny, whose spirit was
fairly roused at what the narrowness of his education conceived to be a
signal injustice, placing the trunk of the tree between Mr. Stirn and
himself, began that task of self-justification which it was equally