Out of the Past — page 141: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

138 Out of the Past. the girl was not usual. When she found that her child would be illegitimate, although at that time the stigma upon the child would have been milder than now, she walked out upon the bar and let herself into the swirl of the waters in the death hole. Here the legend becomes in- coherent. It is said that her village lover passed with his catch of fish as the outgoing waters cast her up on the sand; that he vowed a sacrifice to Our Mother of Com- passion if She would save the maid. That at the end of his prayer he found her breathing and that he married her. Her children’s children to-day rule in this part of the country. And so the spot is called le Sauveur de Péche. The chateau went down before the revolution and its master fell before the Sans Culottes, and his name is now extinct in the land of France. That is the legend; half gruesome, half satisfying with its crude justice. But J should not care to try a prayer against the swirl of those waters. Now I must go to the man from Paris. Shall I bring you a shawl, ma mie?” Benedict’s eyes softened as he watched them. Their happiness was so full and simple, so free from either af- fectation or parade. He could imagine a rare communion of thought between them, but he saw that they were not likely to show him what that communion might be. 33 ‘““How well he looks,” commented Benedict, watching EOMMICOOOKKS.€O©