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Book, page 371 / 484 "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 assure 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
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