OU_214051 UNIVERSA - Osmania University

THE LODGER 23
It was dark by the time the train reached Brussels, and at first
he didn't recognize the station, for the train had come in at an
unfamiliar platform. Outside snow was falling, or rather the air was
thick with melting flakes. Hotel portere were waiting at the Exit.
" Astoria. Palace. Grand Hotel. ... A taxi, sir? "
He made a detour so as not to pass the man from the Palace.
Avoiding the main thoroughfares, he turned to the left, then to the
left again, and found himself in a tangle of mean streets, lined with
cafes and fried-fish shops.
At last he entered a cafe where people were sitting with cups of
coffee and mugs of beer in front of them, waiting for trains apparently,
as most of them had luggage.
" Have you a telephone? "
" Yes, over there on the right. You can get a counter at the
cash-desk."
But what was he to do with the counter that was handed him?
In Turkish cafes counters aren't used.... Yet when he thought of
Turkey it seemed no more than a name—the name of a country in
which he'd never set foot. He held the disk up enquiringly.
" I see. You're a foreigner. What number do you want? "
" The Palace Hotel, please."
Elie picked up the receiver.
" Is that the Palace} I want to talk to Mademoiselle Sylvie.
What? She's out? ... I'll ring up again presently. No; no message."
He was longing for a hot grog, and his desire for one had grown
to an obsession. But there was nothing to be done; he resigned
himself to drinking a glass of beer in a corner of the cafe near the
telephone-box. There was a clock almost in front of him, above the
bar of polished oak. When half an hour had passed he rang up
again; then again after another half-hour.
At eight, when he rang up for the sixth time, a voice said to him:
" I think I saw Mademoiselle Sylvie in the grill-room. Hold the
line, please."
He pictured the Palace grill-room with its pink-shaded lamps on
the tables, flowers in cut-glass vases, the sideboard glistening with
silver, and the big dinner-waggon on which the head-waiter now
was trundling from table to table the day's joint.
"Hullo? Who's there?"
With his mind's eye he could see the telephone-box beside the
reading-room, with its big notice on the glass door: No Smoking.
" Hullo? " she called again impatiently.