CHAPTER II.

It is greatly to be regretted that Mr. Stirn was not present at the
parson's Discourse; but that valuable functionary was far otherwise
engaged,--indeed, during the summer months he was rarely seen at the
afternoon service. Not that he cared for being preached at,--not he;
Mr. Stirn would have snapped his fingers at the thunders of the Vatican.
But the fact was, that Mr. Stirn chose to do a great deal of gratuitous
business upon the day of rest. The squire allowed all persons who chose
to walk about the park on a Sunday; and many came from a distance to
stroll by the lake, or recline under the elms. These visitors were
objects of great suspicion, nay, of positive annoyance, to Mr. Stirn--
and, indeed, not altogether without reason, for we English have a natural
love of liberty, which we are even more apt to display in the grounds of
other people than in those which we cultivate ourselves. Sometimes, to
his inexpressible and fierce satisfaction, Mr. Stirn fell upon a knot of
boys pelting the swans; sometimes he missed a young sapling, and found it
in felonious hands, converted into a walking-stick; sometimes he caught a
hulking fellow scrambling up the ha-ha to gather a nosegay for his
sweetheart from one of poor Mrs. Hazeldean's pet parterres; not
infrequently, indeed, when all the family were fairly at church, some
curious impertinents forced or sneaked their way into the gardens, in
order to peep in at the windows. For these, and various other offences
of like magnitude, Mr. Stirn had long, but vainly, sought to induce the
squire to withdraw a permission so villanously abused. But though there
were times when Mr. Hazeldean grunted and growled, and swore "that he
would shut up the park, and fill it [illegally] with mantraps and spring-
guns," his anger always evaporated in words. The park was still open to