rces were small, they were always ready at hand, like,
a banker with a weak capital, but who could pay every trifling demand on
the spot, I lived upon credit; and upon that credit I grew rich. Had I
gone on freely as I began, I might still enjoy the fame of wealth and
solvency, but with the reputation of affluence came the wish to be rich.
I contracted my issues, I husbanded my resources, and from that hour
I became suspected. To avoid a "run" for gold, I ceased to trade and
retired. This, in a few words, is the whole history of my life.

Gilbert comes to say that the carriage is waiting to convey me to the
villa--our luggage is already there. Be it so: still I must own to
myself, that going to occupy a palace for the last few hours of life and
fortune is very much like good Christopher Sly's dream of Lordliness.

CHAPTER X. SOME REVERIES ABOUT PLACES.

What would the old school of Diplomatists have said if they saw their
secret wiles and machinations exposed to publicity, as is now the
fashion? When any "honourable and learned gentleman" can call for
"copies of the correspondence between our Minister at the Court
of-------- and the noble Secretary for the Foreign Department;" and
when the "Times" can, in a leader, rip up all the flaws of a treaty, or
expose all the dark intentions of some special compact? The Diplomatic
"Holy of Holies" is now open to the vulgar gaze, and all the mysteries
of the craft as commonplace as the transactions of a Poor-law Union.

Much of the "prestige" of this secrecy died out on the establishment of
railroads. The Courier who travelled formerly with breathless haste from
Moscow to London, or from the remotest cities of the far East, to our
little Isle of the West, was sure to bring intelligence several days
earlier than it could reach by any other channel. The gold greyhound,
embroidered on his arm, was no exaggerated emblem of his speed; but
now, his prerogative over, he journeys in "a first-class carriage"
with some fifty others, who arrive along with him. Old age and infancy,
sickness and debility, are no disqualifications--the race is open to
all--and the tidings brought by "our messenger" are not a particle
later, and rarely so full, as those given forth in the columns of a
leading journal.

How impossible to affect any mysterious silence before the "House!"--how
vain to attempt any knowledge from exclusive sources! "The ordinary
channels of information," to use Sir Robert's