Mrs. Bob: A Novel — page 235: what you’re looking at

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

BOB FINDS—A FATHER-IN-LAW. 227 ‘‘Good—Bob, has it ever struck you that I might have a history back of all these years in Congress and traveling ?”’ ‘Jove! is this news about yourself, Senator—I thought——’’ and Bob stops, fearing that he has come very near stepping on dangerous ground. ‘You supposed it concerned the business of the hour—well, you are right—it does both, for they are connected.’? ‘‘Ah!? and Bob nods knowingly. ‘I desire to open to your gaze, my boy, a heart that has been shut up for fifteen years and more. I have laughed and been a jovial fellow; but under it all carried a load of misery few men would be able to uphold.”’ , ‘‘Rifteen years—yes, go on,’’ mutters Bob, men- tally calculating, ‘‘she could have been three years old, then.”’ ‘‘Many things have been kept in profound secrecy for these years. I myself have believed certain facts that have turned out fallacies. Bob, you never even knew that once I was married.’’ “Well, you told merecently. I might have guessed the fact by a dozen different things. ’”’ ‘Ves, I had a happy home once—happy in spite of the fact that the father of my wife hated me like one might a mad dog, happy until a serpent entered my Eden, and destroyed it, making me a wanderer, and for a year a sceptic with regard to human nature ; but, thank God, I overcame this.”’ ‘‘T should say so,’’? remarks Bob, who finds it hard GCOMIGcdooks (C©) im