ambassadorial travelling charges, or can afford to wait for them till a
total change of administration--of which, sir, if I see any symptoms to-day
in council," added his lordship, in the tone of bitter irony; "I will give
you fair notice--for fair dealing is what I practise."

This said, the minister left the commissioner to digest his speech as he
might, and repaired to council, where he found every thing apparently
as smooth as usual, and where he was received by all, especially by the
highest, with perfect consideration.

Meantime Commissioner Falconer was wretched beyond expression--wretched
in the certainty that his son, that he himself, had probably lost,
irrecoverably, one excellent patron, before they had secured, even in case
of change, another. This premature discovery of Cunningham's intrigues
totally disconcerted and overwhelmed him; and, in the bitterness of his
heart, he cursed the duplicity which he had taught and encouraged, still
more by example, than by precept. But Cunningham's duplicity had more and
closer folds than his own. Cunningham, conceited of his diplomatic genius,
and fearful of the cautious timidity of his father, did not trust that
father with the knowledge of all he did, or half of what he intended; so
that the commissioner, who had thought himself at the bottom of every
thing, now found that he, too, had been cheated by his son with false
confidences; and was involved by him in the consequences of a scheme, of
which he had never been the adviser. Commissioner Falconer knew too well,
by the experience of Cumberland and others, the fate of those who suffer
themselves to be lured on by second-hand promises; and who venture, without
being publicly acknowledged by their employers, to undertake any diplomatic
mission. Nor would Cunningham, whose natural disposition to distrust was
greater than his father's, have sold himself to any political tempter,
without first signing and sealing the compact, had he been in possession