Out of the Past — page 63: what you’re looking at

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

60 Out of the Past. “Tet me share it.” “I cannot. Do please go.” “But how can I go? You are in trouble.” “No, monsieur.”’ “Yes, I feel it as I have never felt any sorrow of my own.” “If you would be kind, you will go away; you will forget. It is a woman’s privilege to weep for trivial things.” How cold she could be. Robert stood silent, feeling in bitterness how near him the breath of communion was passing. She finally broke the silence sadly, but so guardedly that her very sadness seemed to place a dis- tance between them. “What I said was not true, monsieur. I was unhappy and lonely. Life seemed a task. There seemed no hope in it; no satisfaction, not much joy—it seemed just a round of necessity. And so you found me crying, monsieur.”’ Her proud constraint smote him; he answered sud- denly, as though to some unspoken command and, to the beat of his low, vehement words, the funeral of her happiness seemed to pass in painful procession. “I could have loved you. I did love you. But I will not. You shall have your way—you, and the chance COMMICOOOKS ©