Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1916-01-19


look up, when she fancied herself
alone, and become aware Of the wide
eyed, terrified stare of the transfixed
child.
That he was privileged to attend
school at all was wholly due to great
fear that obsessed madame of doing
anything to invite the interest of the
authorities. She was an honest wom-
an according to her lights, an honest
wife, and kept an honest house; but
she feared the gendarmerie more than
the wrath of God. And by ukase Of
government certain amount of edu-
cation was compulsory. So Marcel
learned, among other things, to read,
and thereby took his first blind step
toward salvation.
| Before Marcel was eleven he had
read Lies Miserables" with intense ap-
probation. His reading, however, was
not long confined to works in the
French language. Now and again
some departing guest would leave an
English moved in his room, and these
Marcel treasured beyond all other
books; they seemed to him, in way,
part Of his birthright. He called
J himself, secretly, English in those
days, because he knew he wasn't
| French-that much, at least, he re.
b membered. And then some accident
/ threw his way small English-French
! dictionary. He was able to read Eng
!, lish before he could speak it.
Out of school hours a drudge and
scullion, the associate of solutions and
their immediate betters, drawn from
that caste of loose tongues and looser
morals which breeds servants for small
hotels, Marcel at eleven-as nearly as
his age can be computed-possessed
comprehension of life at once exact,
exhaustive and appalling.
By fifteen he had developed into
long, lank, loutish youth with face
|~of extraordinary pallor, a sullen
mouth, hot, black eyes, and dark hair
like a name, so seldom was it trimmed.
He looked considerably older than he
was, and the slightness of his body
was deceptive, Disgusting a power of
sinewy strength. More than this, he
could care very handily for himself
In a scrimmage-la savate lighting
with the feet) had no secrets from
him, and he had picked up tricks from
the Apaches quite as effectual as any
In the manual Of jiujitsu. o.,
u Paris he knew as you and I know
the palms Of our hands, and he could
converse with the precision of the
native-born in any one of the city's
several odd argots. To these accom-
plishments he added that of a thor.
oughly practiced petty thief.
His duties were by day those of
valet de chambre on the third floor;
by night he acted as omnibus in the
restaurant. For these services he re-
ceived no pay and less consideration
from his employers-who would have
been Mortified by an innuendo that
they countenanced slavery-only his
ground floor at the back of the house
Boosting small window overlooking
q narrow alley.
He was routed out before daylight,
and his working day ended, as rule,
at ten in the evening-but once back
in his kennel, its door closed, Marcel
was free to squirm out of the window
and roam and range Paris at will. And
it was thus that he came by most of
his knowledge of the city.
But for the most part Marcel pre-
ferred to lie abed and read himself
half blind by the light Of purloined
candle-ends. Books he borrowed as
of old from the rooms Of guests or
else pilfered from quayside stalls.
But now and again the guests would
pay further, if unconscious tribute,
through the sly abstraction Of small
coins. Your true Partisan, however,
keeps track of his money to the ulti-
mate sou, an idiosyncrasy which
obliged the boy to practice most of his
populations on the fugitive guest of
foreign extraction.
In the number of these, perhaps
the one best known to Troyon's was
Bourke.
He was quick, compact, dangerous
little Irishman who had fallen into the
habit of resting" at Troyon's when
ever a vacation from London seemed
prescription apt to prove whole
some for a gentleman of his kidney;
which was rather frequently, arguing
that Bourke's professional activities
were fairly onerous.
Having received most Of his educa-
ton in Dublin university, Bourke
spoke the purest English known, or
could when SO minded, while his facile
Irish tongue had caught the trick of
an accent which passed unchallenged
on the boulevards. He had an alert
eye for pretty women, a heart as big
as all outdoors, no scruples worth men,
tioning, secret sorrow, and pet SUI
perstition.
The hue of his hair, a clamorous
red, was the spring of his secret sor-
row. By that token he was a marked
man.
His pet superstition was that as
long as he refrained from practicing
his profession in Paris, Paris would
stand toward him as an impregnable
tower of refuge. The world owed
Bourke living, or he so considered,
but Paris was tax-exempt as long as
Paris let him alone
Not only did Paris suit his tastes