Out of the Past — page 170: what you’re looking at

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

Out of the Past. 167 “Then the keynote of your life has been illegitimacy ?” “Yes; you must consider that that was the frank, gen- eral supposition. It went near to making a hideous dis- cord of all.” He paused painfully. “In the end, it was illegitimacy that robbed me to skin and bone. The fear of it for her child bereft Rose of her reason—sent her to death by her own hand.” Winthrop said no word. ‘Tears rose hot and biting to his eyes, and he listened, unconscious of anything but the quiet power of the man before him and the knowl- edge gained of a fearful world hitherto unknown to him. At last he rose, when Robert had told of his life at the Riviera, and the end seemed near, saying: “Let us go out. It is stifling here. Do you smoke?” Two points of light and the tread of two strong men passed up and down the long piazza. Moonlight cast shadows of the odorous pines aslant the ground. ‘The cold freshness and the peace of midnight brooded in the air. “And that was the end,’ finished Robert; “seven months ago.” There was a long silence before the father said huskily: “The end—and the beginning. We are two men to- gether. We have a good deal of a life to live. It is hun- ger to the heart, I know. But there is a deal of satisfac- GEOmicsooks (E(0)