sat behind the coffee-stand stifling her feelings in the manner she
best might, until she heard her father propose "sheep-stealing" as an
emendation of the probable offence of her banished friend, when she could
support it no longer. Little accustomed at any time to hide her emotions,
the high-spirited girl burst into tears, upbraided her respectable parent
and thick-headed cousin for their hardheartedness and want of charity,
ventured at first to disbelieve every sentence they had uttered, proceeded
to confess that she had had the pleasure of the stranger's acquaintance,
and ended by proudly introducing him (in an imaginary way) to her
astonished friends as Major Fergus Hewitt of the Second Republican Brigade
of Artillery, and Commissioner to Mononia from the Provisional Government.

Had a petard from the Major's own brigade been projected into the centre
of the little breakfast table, it could not have played the mischief more
effectually than did this stunning explosion. Lysaght Osborne, after
remaining speechless for some minutes, having helped himself to a cup of
scalding water from the urn, was compelled to retreat upon the pump
outside. His uncle, who had received so large a portion of the shell,
necessarily, too, exhibited much suffering, which his daughter at length
attempted in vain to alleviate. But the spoiled and petted Katey had for
once overcounted. There are in certain minds bursts of passion, which,
like the tempests of tropical islands, are all the more violent and
unsparing from the halcyon seasons that precede them. Such was the storm
of wrath that now for the first time descended from Tyrrel's lips upon his
daughter's head. He raved and stamped at her like a maniac, terrified her
into an acknowledgment that she had listened even to amatory
communications from the unhappy Hewitt, commanded her from his presence,
then recalled her to be reprimanded for retiring so hastily, and again
expelling her, pursued her with all but palpable fire and sword to her own
territory, where, locking her in her bed-chamber, he deposited the key in
his pocket, and set out on foot to finish the work of disaster by
annihilating the "dealer in soft goods," who had, he felt assured, been a
proximate agent in nearly ridding him of his child. His first intention
was to hold no terms whatever in his approaches upon Curly's fortalice,
or, in other words, "to make an open show of him;" but a mile's walk of a
muddy day has a sedativ