Of all that properly belonged to his rank and station he could be very proud, and would allow no diminution of that outward respect to which they were entitled.

Were they to be trenched on by his fault in his person, the rights of others to their enjoyment would be endangered, and the benefits accruing to his country from established marks of reverence would be imperilled.

But here was an assumed and preposterous grandeur that was as much within the reach of some rich swindler or of some prosperous haberdasher as of himself,--having, too, a look of raw newness about it which was very distasteful to him.

And then, too, he knew that nothing of all this would have been done unless he had become Prime Minister.

Why on earth should a man's grounds be knocked about because he becomes Prime Minister?
He walked on arguing this within his own bosom, till he had worked himself almost up to anger.
It was clear that he must henceforth take things more into his own hands, or he would be made to be absurd before the world.
Indifference he knew he could bear.