His lordship signed the papers, and, when that was finished, turned again to Mr. Temple.
“Sir, some time ago a place was vacant, which, I know, you had reason to expect. It was given to Mr. Shaw, because it was better suited to him than to you. The manner in which you took your disappointment showed a confidence in my justice. Have you any objection, Mr. Temple, to the diplomatic line?”
“I fear—or I should say, I hope—my lord, that I have not the habits of dissimulation, which, as I have always understood, are necessary to success in the diplomatic line.”
“You have understood wrongly, sir,” replied Lord Oldborough. “I, who have seen something of courts, and know something of diplomacy, am of opinion that a man of sense, who knows what he is about, who says the thing that is, who will tell at once what he can do, and what he cannot, would succeed better as a negotiator in the present state of Europe, than could any diplomatist with all the simulation and dissimulation of Chesterfield, or with the tact of Mazarin.”
“Indeed, my lord!” said Mr. Temple, looking up with an air of surprise that almost expressed, Then why did you choose Cunningham Falconer for an envoy?
“Pray,” said Lord Oldborough, taking a long inspiration with a pinch of snuff, “pray with that despatch this morning from Mr. Cunningham Falconer were there any private letters?”
“One for Commissioner Falconer, my lord.”
“None from Count Altenberg to me?”
“None, my lord.”
The minister took a walk up and down the room, and then returning to Mr. Temple, said, “His majesty thinks proper, sir, to appoint you envoy in the place of Mr. Cunningham Falconer, who is recalled.”