Out of the Past — page 29: what you’re looking at

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

26 Out of the Past. down leisurely upon the grass and motioned Robert to a place beside him. “You should have told me all this before,’ he said, gently. “How long has it been in your mind?” “Always. Ever since I could think—before I left the care of Sister Clothilde.”’ When the priest next spoke there was unusual warmth in his rich voice. “Lad, do you know how much I have cared for you? Do you never see that I choose your companionship in preference to that of my brothers? It is not my habit to show affection. A man grows hardened who lives alone. But, if I cannot express it so that you will feel it, you have brought into my life a happiness I never hoped to have. This is my life: I was the son of a wealthy baker of Provence. I was given an education and was sent to Paris to choose a vocation. I tutored in a family of high position. My charge had a sister. It goes hard to speak of it even now when years have sped away; when the hope of youth can never again make spring in my heart; when she is dead, and there is left me nothing but to live for others as I would have lived for her.” Robert leaned toward him with eager eyes and whis- pered: “Pater—it was Sister Clothilde.” CONNICLOOOKS.: