Whilst she spoke, her eyes followed the Count, who, quite unconscious of his danger, undisturbed by any idea of Miss Georgiana Falconer and love, two ideas which probably never had entered his mind together, was carelessly walking down the room, his thoughts apparently occupied with the passing scene. He had so much the habit of observing men and manners, without appearing to observe them, that, under an air of gaiety, he carried his understanding, as it were, incognito. His observation glanced on all the company as he passed. Miss Georgiana Falconer lost sight of him as he reached the end of the saloon; he disappeared in the antechamber. Soon afterwards a report reached her that the Percy family were arrived; that Count Altenberg had been particularly struck by the sight of one of the Miss Percys, and had been overheard to whisper to his friend Colonel Bremen, “Very like the picture! but still more _mind_ in the countenance!” At hearing this, Miss Georgiana Falconer grew first red and then turned pale; Mrs. Falconer, though scarcely less confounded, never changed a muscle of her face, but leaving every body to choose their various comments upon the Count’s words, and simply saying, “Are the Percys come at last?” she won her easy way through the crowd, whispering to young Petcalf as she passed, “Now is your time, Petcalf, my good creature--Georgiana is disengaged.” Before Mrs. Falconer got to the antechamber, another report met her, “that the Percys had been overturned, and had been terribly hurt.” “Overturned!--terribly hurt!--Good Heavens!” cried Mrs. Falconer, as she entered the antechamber. But the next person told her they were not in the least hurt--still pressing forward, she exclaimed, “Mrs. Percy! Where is Mrs. Percy? My dear madam! what has happened? Come the wrong road, did you?--broken bridge--And were you really overturned?” “No, no, only obliged to get out and walk a little way.” “Oh! I am sorry--But I am so glad to see you all safe!--When it grew late, I grew so uneasy!” Then turning towards Caroline, “Miss Caroline Percy, I am sure, though I had never, till now, the pleasure of seeing her.” An introduction of Caroline by Mrs. Percy, in due form, took place. Mrs. Falconer next recognized Mr. Percy, declared he did not look a day older than when she had seen him fifteen years before--then recurring to the ladies, “But, my dear Mrs. Percy, are you sure that your shoes are not wet through?--Oh! my dear madam, Miss Percy’s are terribly wet! and Miss Caroline’s!--Positively, the young ladies must go to my dressing-room--the shoes must be dried.” Mrs. Falconer said that perhaps her daughters could accommodate the Miss Percys with others. It was in vain that Rosamond protested her shoes were not wet, and that her sister’s were perfectly dry; a few specks on their white justified Mrs. Falconer’s apprehensions. “Where is my Arabella? If there was any body I could venture to trouble--”