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THE EUROPEANS.
[CH.
decision was taken quite so much as he had done a fortnight before?"
"He never admired me. He admires Charlotte; he pitied me. I know him so well."
"Well, then, he didn't pity you so much."
Gertrude looked at Felix a little, smiling. "You shouldn't permit yourself," she said, "to diminish the splendour of his action. He admires Charlotte," she repeated.
"That's capital!" said Felix laughingly, and dipping his oars. I cannot say exactly to which member of Gertrude's phrase he alluded; but he dipped his oars again, and they kept floating about.
Neither Felix nor his sister, on that day,