Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1916-02-25
CHAPTER I.
Troyon's.

r- tho hustle of the adjacent boule-
W., ", of st. GermaiD and ST. Michel,
% IN its day was a restaurant IA
w Wv with a fame jealousy guarded
select circle of patrons. Its
.t-rg was the best in Paris, It's eel
socond to none. it's rates ridicu-
',.Iv reasonable; yet Baedeker knew
rnt And in the wisdom of those
W. did know this was well; it were
a,+v to loose upon so excellent an
'..obIisbment those swarms of tour
=, that profane every temple of gas
r,nomy on the right bank of the
Seine
Tho building was of three stories,
,,rtsd dingy drab, and trimmed
rab dull-green shutters. The restau-
AMI occupied almost all of the street
+ont of the ground floor; blank, nom
,,rmital double doorway at one ex-
rome of the plate-glass windows was
seldom open and even more seldom
noticed.
medieval maze of corridors, long
md short, complicated by many unex-
,scted steps and staircases and enig-
matte doors, running every which
vsr and as rule landing one in the
Wong room, linked together some
tToscore bedchambers. There were
no salons or reception rooms, there
vas never bathroom, there wasn't
even running water aside from two
hallway taps, one to each story.
With such accommodations the
quests of Troyon's were well content.
One did much as one pleased there,
woviding ones bill was paid with toll
gable regularity and the hand kept
supple that operated the Gordon in the
small hours of the night. Papa Troyon
cane from a tribe of innkeepers and
vas liberal-minded; while as for
madame his wife, she cared for moth
Ing but pieces of gold.
To TrOyon's on a wet winter night
b the year 1898 came the child who,
man, was to call himself Michael
Lanyard He must have been four or
i've years old at that time; an age at
which consciousness is just begin
hing to recognize its individuality and
memory registers with capricious ir-
Ia Of
h state of excitement involving an
almost abnormal constituencies to i'm
EeSSOns; but that was soon drowned
deep in dreamless slumber of healthy
AhauStiOn; and when he came to
look back through a haze of days, Of
which each had made it's separate and
imperative demand upon his budding
EMOTIONS, he found his store of mem
ones strangely dulled and disarticu-
ate And the child soon gave over
DIS instructive, but rather inconsecu-
I'VE efforts to retrace his history
Ie at Troyon's furnished him with
compelling and obliterating interests.
Madame saw to that.
It was madame who took charge OF
ae child when the strange man
Jagged him crying from the cab
through cold, damp place gloomy
WIN shadows and upstairs to a warm,
%igAt bedroom; a formidable body,
Wis madame, with cold eyes and
many hairy moles, who made odd
lUSeS in her throat while she un-
dressed the little boy with the man
"@lulng by, noises meant to sound
%npaSsionate and maternal, but, to
Is child at least, hopelessly other
wise.
'aen drowsiness stealing upon one
tVOn
anu madame it was who ruled with
WI hand the strange new world to
'.lcn the boy awakened.
-ue man was gone by morning, and
~ Cniid never saw him again; but
-aslnuch as those about him under
WV no English and he no French,
was some time before he compre-
.ll7o the false assurances of
s % that his father had gone on
~ sU'aey, but would presently return.
~. 'uild knew positively that the
~ ~ was not his father, but when he
-. !. @O!e TO make this correction the
NJ 49, mad faded into insignificance-
~. 1Su become too painful to leave
~s or inclination for the adjustment
H., SUCH minor and incidental ques-
~ as that of ones parentage.
hr rue little boy soon learned to know
,,m rs'0 as Marcel, which wasn't his
\ ana before long was unaware
r.n -@u ever worn another. AS he
n NV older he became known as Mar
~. .i'oyon; but by then he had for
!. ''1 now to speak English.
H., ;, va" Va, few days after his arrival
y, ~. sus warm, bright bedchamber
ooa,, sA1Aanged for cold, dark closet
hs.s on madame's boudoir, cup
NJ furnished with a rickety cot
usios pfoKen chair, lacking any pro-
sls- IOf neat or light and ventilated
h,,r " a transom over the door; and
Ren.tScn as madame shared the
i, ~ horror Of drafts and so kept
U0uOoir hermeficaIlv soaIod nine
kso IS Oh the year, the transom didn't
trr Iatters much. But that closet
Nea the hnr,c rnln os. - = rro