Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1916-02-19
CHAPTER 4.
Troyon's.

IT0yOnS occupied corner IN
jungle Of side streets, well Withdrawn
from the hustle of the adjacent bouIe
wards of st. German and St. Michel
and In its day was a restaurant ia
nous with a fame jealousy guard ed
by q select circle of patrons. Its
cooking was the best in Paris. its eel
lar second to none. its rates ridicu-
tOusiy reasonable; yet Baedeker knew
1t not And in the wisdom of those
who did know this was well: IL were
a pity to loose upon SO excellent an
establishment those swarms of tour
lists that profane every temple of gas
trunomy on the right bank of the
SEINE
The building was of three stories,
painted a dingy drab, and trimmed
with duil-green shutters. The restau-
rant occupied almost all of the street
front OF the ground floor; blank. nom
commital double doorway at one ex-
trHme of the piate-glass windows was
69ddom open and even more seldom
nufaced
4 medieval maze OF corridors, long
and short. complicated by many unex-
uected steps and staircases and enig-
matte doors. running every which
way. and as rule landing one in the
wrong room, linked together some
tEuscore bedchambers. There were
no salons or reception rooms. there
was never a bathroom. there wasn't
eHen running water aside from two
halfway taps. one to each story
With such accommodations the
guests of Troyon's were we'll content.
phoYiding ones bill was paid with toll
cradle regularity and the hand kept
supple that operated the Gordon in the
small hours of the night. Papa Troyon
came from tribe of innkeepers and
was iiberal-minded: while as for
madame. his wife. she cared for moth
ing but pieces of gold.
10 Troyon's on a wet winter night
ia the year 1898 came the child who,
as O 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
ming to recognize its individuality and
MEMORY registers with capricious ir-
regularity. He arrived at the hotel
In a state of excitement involving an
almost abnormal sensitiveness to i'm
pressions; but that was soon drowned
deep IN. dreamless slumber of healthy
exhaustion: and when he came to
look back through a haze of DAYS. of
which each had made its separate and
imperative demand upon his budding
emotions, he found his store of mem
cries strangely dulled and disarticu-
late And the child soon gave over
his instructive. but rather inconsecu-
tive. efforts to retrace his history
life at Troyon's furnished him with
compelling and obliterating interests
Madame saw to that.
1t was madame who took charge of
the child when the strange man
dragged him crying from the cab
through cold. damp place gloomy
with shadows and upstairs to a warm.
bright bedroom: a formidable body.
this madame, with cold eyes and
many hairy moles. who made odd
noises in her throat while she un-
dressed the little boy with the man
standing by. noises meant to sound
compassionate and maternal, but. to
the child at least. hopelessIy other
wise.
Then drowsiness stealing upon one
over pillow wet with tears-ob-
iivion.
And madame it was who ruled with
iron hand the strange new world to
which the boy awakened
The man was gone by morning. and
the child never saw him again: but
tnasmuch as those about him under
stood no English and he no French.
it was some time before he compre-
aended the false assurances of
madame that his father had gone on
a journey. but would presently return.
The child knew positively that the
man MAS not his father but when he
was able to make this correction the
matter had faded into insignificance-l
life had become too painful to leave
time or inclination for the adjustment
or such minor and incidental cues
tons as that of ones parentage.
The little boy soon learned to know
himself as Marcel. which wasn't his
name. and before long was unaware
be had ever worn another. AS lie
grew older he became known as Mar
eel Troyon: out by then he had fc-.
gotten how to speak English.
It was few days after his arrival
that the warm. bright bedchamber
was exchanged for a cold. dark closet
opening of madame's boudoir, cum
board furnished with a rickety cot
and O broken chair. lacking any pro-
vision for heat or light and ventilated
solely by a transom over the door; and
nasmuch as madame shared the
French horror of drafts and So tens