Here they were interrupted by Mr. Percy's return from Lord Oldborough's.

The commissioner followed Mr. Percy into the room, and asked, and was answered, a variety of questions about despatches from town; trying, but, in vain, to find out what had been going forward. At last he ended with a look of absence, and a declaration that he was quite happy to hear that Lord Oldborough had _so_ completely got rid of his gout.

"Completely," said Mr. Percy; "and he desires me to tell you, that it will be necessary for him to return to town in a few days."

"In a few days!" cried the commissioner.

"In a few days!" repeated several voices, in different tones.

"In a few days!--Gracious Heaven! and what will become of 'the Lord of the Manor!'" cried Miss Falconer.

"Gently, my Arabella! never raise your voice so high--you, who are a musician," said Mrs. Falconer, "and so sweet a voice as you have--in general. Besides," added she, drawing her apart, "you forget that you should not speak of 'the Lord of the Manor' before the Percys, as they are not to be asked."

"To be sure. Pray keep your temper, Bell, if you can, for a minute,"

whispered Miss Georgiana; "you see they have rung for the carriage."

Mrs. Falconer began to entreat Mrs. Percy would not be in a hurry to run away; but to her great joy the carriage came to the door.

At parting with Count Altenberg, Mr. Percy said that he regretted that they were so soon to lose his company in this part of the world. "We, who live so much retired, shall feel the loss particularly."

The Count, evidently agitated, only said, in a low voice, "We are not parting yet--we shall meet again--I hope--do you ever go to London?"

"Never."

"At all events, we _must_ meet again," said the Count.

The ladies had all collected at the open windows, to see the departure of the Percys; but Miss Georgiana Falconer could learn nothing from the manner in which the Count handed Caroline into the carriage. It did not appear even that he spoke to her.

On his return, the Miss Falconers, and the Lady Arlingtons, were of course talking of those who had just left the house. There was at first but one voice in praise of Caroline's beauty and talents, elegance, and simplicity of manner. Mrs. Falconer set the example; Lady Frances Arlington and Miss Georgiana Falconer extolled her in the highest terms--one to provoke, the other not to appear provoked.

"La!" said Lady Frances, "how we may mistake even the people we know best--Georgiana, can you conceive it? I never should have guessed, if you had not told me, that Miss Caroline Percy was such a favourite of yours. Do you know now, so little penetration have I, I should have thought that you rather disliked her?"

"You are quite right, my dear Lady Frances," cried Mrs. Falconer; "I give you credit for your penetration: _entre nous_, Miss Caroline Percy is no favourite of Georgiana."

Georgiana actually opened her eyes with astonishment, and thought her mother did not know what she was saying, and that she certainly did not perceive that Count Altenberg was in the room.

"Count Altenberg, is this the book you are looking for?" said the young lady, p.r.o.nouncing Count Altenberg's name very distinctly, to put her mother on her guard.

Mrs. Falconer continued precisely in the same tone. "Georgiana does justice, I am sure, to Miss Percy's merit and charms; but the truth is, she does not like her, and Georgiana has too much frankness to conceal it; and now come here, and I will tell you the reason." In a half whisper, but perfectly intelligible to every one in the room, Mrs.

Falconer went on--"Georgiana's favourite brother, Buckhurst--did you never hear it? In days of yore, there was an attachment--Buckhurst, you know, is very ardent in his attachments--desperately in love he was--and no wonder. But at that time he was n.o.body--he was unprovided for, and the young lady had a good fortune then--her father would have him go to the bar--against the commissioner's wishes. You know a young man will do any thing if he is in love, and is encouraged--I don't know how the thing went on, or off, but Buckhurst found himself disappointed at last, and was so miserable about it! ready to break his heart! you would have pitied him! Georgiana was so sorry for him, that she never could forgive the young lady--though I really don't imagine, after all, she was to blame. But sisters will feel for their brothers."

Georgiana, charmed to find this amiable mode of accounting for her dislike to Caroline, instantly pursued her mother's hint, and frankly declared that she never could conceal either her likings or dislikings--that Miss Caroline Percy might have all the merit upon earth, and she did not doubt but she had; yet she never could forgive her for jilting Buckhurst--no, never! never! It might be unjust, but she owned that it was a prepossession she could not conquer.

"Why, indeed, my dear young lady, I hardly know how to blame you," cried Lady Trant; "for certainly a jilt is not a very amiable character."

"Oh! my dear Lady Trant, don't use such a word--Georgiana!--Why will you be so warm, so very unguarded, where that darling brother is concerned?

You really--Oh! my dear Lady Trant, this must not go farther--and positively the word jilt must never be used again; for I'm confident it is quite inapplicable."

"I'd not swear for that," cried Lady Trant; "for, now I recollect, at Lady Angelica Headingham's, what was it we heard, my dear Lady Kew, about her coquetting with that Mr. Barclay, who is now going to be married to Lady Mary Pembroke, you know?"

"Oh! yes, I did hear something, I recollect--but, at the time, I never minded, because I did not know, then, who that Miss Caroline Percy was--true, true, I recollect it now. And all, you know, we heard about her and Sir James Harcourt--was there not something there? By all accounts, it is plain she is not the simple country beauty she looks--practised!--practised! you see."

Miss Georgiana Falconer's only fear was, that Count Altenberg might not hear Lady Kew, who had lowered her voice to the note of mystery. Mrs.

Falconer, who had accomplished her own judicious purpose, of accounting for Georgiana's dislike of Miss Caroline Percy, was now afraid that her dear friends would overdo the business; she made many efforts to stop them, but once upon the scent of scandal, it was no easy matter to change the pursuit.

"You seem to have found something that has caught your attention delightfully, Count Altenberg," said Mrs. Falconer; "how I envy any one who is completely _in_ a book--what is it?"

"Johnson's preface to Shakspeare."

Miss Georgiana Falconer was vexed, for she recollected that Miss Caroline Percy had just been speaking of it with admiration.

Mrs. Falconer wondered how it could have happened that she had never read it.

Lady Kew persevered in her story. "Sir James Harcourt, I know, who is the most polite creature in the whole world, and who never speaks an ill word of any body, I a.s.sure you, said of Miss Caroline Percy in my hearing--what I shall not repeat. Only this much I must tell you, Mrs.

Falconer--Mrs. Falconer!--She won't listen because the young lady is a relation of her own--and we are very rude; but truth is truth, notwithstanding, you know. Well, well, she may talk of Miss Percy's beauty and abilities--very clever she is, I don't dispute; but this I may say, that Mrs. Falconer must never praise her to me for simplicity of character."

"Why, no," said Miss Georgiana; "one is apt to suppose that a person who has lived all her life in the country must, of course, have great simplicity. But there is a simplicity of character, and a simplicity of manner, and they don't always go together. Caroline Percy's manner is fascinating, because, you know, it is what one does not meet with every day in town--that was what struck my poor brother--that and her great talents, which can make her whatever she pleases to be: but I am greatly afraid she is not quite the _ingenuous_ person she looks."

Count Altenberg changed colour, and was putting down his book suddenly, when Mrs. Falconer caught it, and stopping him, asked how far he had read.

Whilst he was turning over the leaves, Lady Trant went on, in her turn--"With all her _practice_, or her _simplicity_, whichever it may be--far be it from me to decide which--I fancy she has met with her match, and has been disappointed in her turn."

"Really!" cried Georgiana, eagerly: "How! What! When!--Are you certain?"

"Last summer--Oh! I have it from those who know the gentleman well. Only an affair of the heart that did not end happily: but I am told she was very much in love. The family would not hear of it--the mother, especially, was averse: so the young gentleman ended by marrying--exceedingly well--and the young lady by wearing the willow, you know, a decent time."

"Oh! why did you never tell me this before?" said Miss Georgiana.

"I protest I never thought of it, till Lady Kew brought it to my recollection, by talking of Lady Angelica Headingham, and Sir James Harcourt, and all that."

"But who was the gentleman?"

"That's a secret," replied Lady Trant.

"A secret!--A secret!--What is it? What is it?" cried Lady Frances Arlington, pressing into the midst of the party; for she was the most curious person imaginable.

Then heads joined, and Lady Trant whispered, and Lady Frances exclaimed aloud, "Hungerford?--Colonel Hungerford!"

"Fie! fie! Lady Frances," cried Georgiana--and "Fie! fie! you are a pretty person to keep a secret," cried Lady Trant: "I vow I'll never trust your ladyship with a secret again--when you publish it in this way."

"I vow you will," said Lady Frances. "Why, you all know, in your hearts, you wish to publish it--else why tell it--especially to me? But all this time I am not thinking in the least about the matter, nor was I when I said _Hungerford_--I was and am thinking of my own affairs. What did I do with the letter I received this morning? I had it here--no, I hadn't it--yes, I had--Anne!--Anne!--Lady Anne! the d.u.c.h.ess's letter: I gave it to you; what did you do with it?"

"La! it is somewhere, I suppose," said Lady Anne, raising her head, and giving a vague look round the room.

Lady Frances made every one search their work-boxes, writing-boxes, and reticules; then went from table to table, opening and shutting all the drawers.

"Frances!--If you would not fly about so! What can it signify?"

expostulated Lady Anne. But in vain; her sister went on, moving every thing and every body in the room, displacing all the cushions of all the chairs in her progress, and, at last, approached Lady Anne's sofa, with intent to invade her repose.