It is better for him than if I had listened to him." "It 's better for me," smiled Felix.

"But do you know, as regards the sacrifice, that I don't believe he admired you when this 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 did n't pity you so much." Gertrude looked at Felix a little, smiling.

"You should n't permit yourself," she said, "to diminish the splendor of his action.