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THE EUROPEANS.
[CH.
appeared to them, vaguely, a natural part of the graceful, rhythmic movement of so remarkable a life. Gertrude especially held these periods in honour; she wondered what Madame Münster did at such times, but she would not have permitted herself to inquire too curiously.
The long rain had freshened the air, and twelve hours' brilliant sunshine had dried the roads; so that the Baroness, in the late afternoon, proposing to walk to Mrs. Acton's, exposed t herself to no great discomfort. As with her charming undulating step she moved along the clean, grassy margin of the road, beneath the thickly hanging boughs of the orchards, through the quiet of the hour and place and the rich maturity of the summer,
