Out of the Past — page 75: what you’re looking at

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

72 Out of the Past. tothink: “After all, none of these splendid women know the men of their own families. It is we who know them.” And this charitable thought enabled her to hold her head so proudly that many a woman truly great in prestige paled before her. M. Vignaud was congratulated upon all sides, to his intense discomfiture, but he was congratulated by none so heartily as by Robert, who thought, “At last in his long career, this man has committed an honorable action.” Seeing that none ventured to entertain her and recogniz- ing the embarrassment of Saline’s position, Robert went to her rescue, relieving M. Vignaud and placing her out of the throng. “See what it is,” smiled Saline, “to attain a position to which one is not born. These people all seem unnatural to me and I[ cannot recognize the men at all—they behave so differently. Do you suppose the women are always so tamer But they are beautifully gowned, quite beauti- fully. It is like living in a modern play perpetually at one of the recherche theatres. They talk very much like it.” Her topic was cleverly seized. Its frankness and naivété were the only means she could have used to inter- est Robert, who saw in them a pathetic acknowledgment of her difficulties as Mme. Vignaud. ECONMMICLOOOMKSae@)