have been disposed of the next morning. “Oh! star of patronage, shine ever thus upon the Falconers!” cried Buckhurst, when, elevated with wine in honour of the church, he gave an account to his father at night of the success of the day.--“Oh! thou, whose influence has, for us, arrested Fortune at the top of her wheel, be ever thus propitious!--Only make me a dean. Have you not made my brother, the dunce, a colonel? and my brother, the knave, an envoy?--I only pray to be a dean--I ask not yet to be a bishop--you see I have some conscience left.” “True,” said his father, laughing. “Now go to bed, Buckhurst; you may, for your fortune is up.” “Ha! my good cousin Percys, where are you now?--Education, merit, male and female, where are you now?--Planting cabbages, and presiding at a day-school: one son plodding in a pleader’s office--another cast in an election for an hospital physician--a third encountering a plague in the West Indies. I give you joy!” No wonder the commissioner exulted, for he had not only provided thus rapidly for his sons, but he had besides happy expectations for himself.--With Lord Oldborough he was now in higher favour and confidence than he had ever hoped to be. Lord Oldborough, who was a man little prone to promise, and who always did more than he said, had, since the marriage of his niece, thrown out a hint that he was aware of the expense it must have been to Commissioner and Mrs. Falconer to give entertainments continually, and to keep open house, as they had done this winter, for his political friends--no instance of zeal in his majesty’s service, his lordship said, he hoped was ever lost upon him, and, if he continued in power, he trusted he should find occasion to show his gratitude. This from another minister might mean nothing but to pay with words; from Lord Oldborough the commissioner justly deemed it as good as a promissory note for a lucrative place. Accordingly he put it in circulation directly among his creditors, and he no longer trembled at the expense at which he had lived and was living. Both Mrs. Falconer and he had ever considered a good cook, and an agreeable house, as indispensably necessary to those who would rise in the world; and they laid it down as a maxim, that, if people wished to grow rich, they must begin by appearing so. Upon this plan every thing in their establishment, table, servants, equipage, dress, were far more splendid than their fortune could afford. The immediate gratification which resulted from this display, combining with their maxims of policy, encouraged the whole family to continue this desperate game. Whenever the timidity of the commissioner had started; when, pressed by his creditors, he had backed, and had wished to stop in this course of extravagance; his lady, of a more intrepid character, urged him forward, pleading that he had gone too far to recede--that the poorer they were, the more necessary to keep up the brilliant appearance of affluence. How