OU_214051 UNIVERSA - Osmania University

THE LODGER *5
fingers made the movement of clenching on something in his podcet
In the Boulevard Adolphe-Max he stopped in front of an ironmonger's
shop, the windows of which were full of tools as highly
polished as the silverware in a jeweller's show-window. Going up
to the shopman, he said without the least hesitation:
" I want a spanner."
He chose a very large one, and swung it to gauge its weight as
if it were a hammer, not a spanner. It was of an American make,
and it cost him sixty-two francs.
He was sweating freely under his greatcoat. And at the same time
he was shivering with cold. It was the same with his hunger; he felt
ravenous, but every time he started to enter a restaurant or a
pastrycook's he felt nauseated.
"All the winning numbers of the national lottery! All the
winners!"
The crowds in the street gave him the impression of a demented
herd, stampeding in all directions. He gazed at the portraits of filmstars
in the lobbies of picture-houses and remembered having met
one of them at Istanbul; he was one of a group of young men who
had shown her round the town one evening. But that, too, seemed
like an incident in a half-forgotten dream.
He knew what time the train left, but went to the station just to
make sure. Yes; 12.33.
At midnight the station was empty, dimly lit and full of greyish
dust, as sweepers were at work.
" Paris. First-class."
"Return, sir?"
He hesitated. He hadn't thought of that.
" Yes, a return, please."
He halted beside the handcart of the woman hiring pillows, and
took two of them, and a blanket. There were only ten people on
the platform waiting for the train. The station was strangely quiet.
Far down the line an engine was shunting, in a maze of red and
yellow lights. Sudden gusts of cold wind swept the platform.
Elie noticed a porter from the Palace keeping a place in one of the
couchette sleepers, entered the same compartment, placed his pillows
and blanket on the opposite seat, and sat down.
He was quite calm.
As he stepped into the carriage Van der Boomp gave Elie a quick
glance, and presumably recognized him as the young man he had
seen at the cabaret. But he took no more notice of him.