West of Montreal
Engels, Vincent
404 THE COMMONWEAL August 21, 1929 WEST OF MONTREAL By VINCENT ENGELS OURNIER'S stands at a crossroad a few miles out of Montreal. There was never anything remarkable about it on...
...he owned this tavern and the house connected with it...
...You might buy him a pint of beer...
...But money was hard to make in those days, even in Paris, and tempting letters were coming from his friends overseas...
...Oh, Napoleon ain't like other dogs...
...No...
...Not Napoleon...
...I guess I suit him about as well as any man could...
...For a long moment I was uneasy...
...And then, because he was a bit lonely, he adopted Napoleon...
...There was an effect of spaciousness, or brightness, not connoted by crossroads taverns...
...In his youth he had been a waiter, first in his father's car6 and later in Paris...
...He drew lengthily on his pipe, stared out the window...
...And about as sad, until you entered...
...We've been together a long time, Napoleon and me...
...Each was remarkable, in his kind...
...I know something of dogs, yet this beast was a hand higher than any dog I have ever seen...
...His head was unmistakably Saint Bernard...
...But I knew that he was taking stock of me, and that his judgment would be as sure as it would be final...
...He had been born in France, at Tours, the youngest of nine children...
...And the milliner--as for her, she had probably married long before...
...Not Fournier...
...That dog--" "Ah, that dog Napoleon," he said, and went on as though continuing a reverie which had just been interrupted...
...The first year he almost starved...
...But his face was unshaven...
...Thus, when the time came that he was able to return, pride held him back...
...ARGARET TOD l~ITTER...
...Anyway, the tavern was inevitable...
...It was a sort of vocation...
...But he did not care...
...Even in so large a room, he seemed out of proportion...
...As I drove away, I reflected that it was no wonder that Fournier had thought my question in bad taste...
...He had enough to live on, and as for the rest--well, this life had its own compensations: hunting, fishing...
...but the legs and the trunk were Great Dane...
...A grey-black stubble spread over his cheeks, almost to the eyes, accounting for the failure of the long moustaches, which, given a proper setting, would have exerted their proper fascination...
...He was an easy talker, and as he talked, his eyes strayed from the dog to the scene outside the window and back again, never resting on mine...
...On my way to the city one cold autumn afternoon I stopped there to get a glass of ale...
...eventually he told me the story of his life...
...I don't know whether I'm his boss or he's mine...
...Twentiet Centurff Stridor, cacophony, the searing breath Of discord, Babel and the burning brand...
...I asked...
...The proprietor, who wore no apron over his khaki shirt and blue corduroy trousers, dozed in an armchair by the stove, hands folded over his paunch...
...Fournier was shocked...
...He was a dog bred to roam the halls of Camelot...
...He spoke of many things...
...His ambition, early fixed, had been to own a car& He had looked forward to the day when he could marry a certain milliner he had met in Paris, return with her triumphantly to his native Touraine, buy an establishment not too far from the Loire, and settle down to become, in time, the father of nine baptized children...
...So I was uncomfortable, but I tried to hide this by turning to the bartender...
...So he bought this place, altering the interior to suit himself...
...Thus silence is betrayed on every hand, Stoned through the streets, put to ignoble death...
...As the man arose, upon my entrance, to take his place behind the bar, the dog rose also, and advanced slowly toward me...
...404 THE COMMONWEAL August 21, 1929 WEST OF MONTREAL By VINCENT ENGELS OURNIER'S stands at a crossroad a few miles out of Montreal...
...At last he sailed for America, comforting the lady with a promise to return in a year, pockets filled with gold...
...Of course it did not turn out to be so easy as he had hoped...
...The years added a hundred pounds to his weight--made him a middle-aged man...
...Then you saw that it was really a decent sort of place...
...And at his feet lay this tremendous dog--the biggest dog in the world...
...The bartender brought a bottle to a table near the window and there we made ourselves comfortable...
...Does he ever play...
...Fournier stopped talking...
...But the ambition to be a caf~ keeper in his own right had not faded...
...It was not because of the size of the dog that I felt as I did...
...It was getting dark...
...Business was not good, even at night, although there was a fairly large farming population to draw from...
...But if he thinks you're all right, he'll let you bring it to him...
...There was never anything remarkable about it on the outside...
...And many years passed before he acquired a reasonable stake...
...He won't come up to the bar and beg...
...Admit that he had needed all these years to make a few dollars...
...His name was Fournier...
...Napoleon, who had been regarding me stiffly from a distance of six paces, now moved back to his place by the stove...
...He settled on the floor, with the basin between his paws, and slowly lapped up the beer...
...the hair, both in texture and coloring, gave evidence of the same strain...
...If not, he did not care to marry an old woman...
...Then he rolled on his side and went to sleep...
...The sight of Napoleon playing with his master would be a solemn and awful thing, partaking of the nature of some hidden ritual-like the slow dancing of sacred elephants...
...We're not so friendly, but we get along together...
...A man may not care whether a hip dog thinks well of him or not, but he cannot pretend to be indifferent to the judgment of the biggest dog in the world...
...That's his way...
...Play...
...The ceiling was high, the bar was stained in oak instad of the traditional mahogany, and round-topped tables, also in oak, were set irregularly about the room, much as they might have been in a French car6...
...nor yet because of anything menacing in his attitude...
...The thought seemed ludicrous that this had once been a puppy, as Fournier had been a romantic waiter in Paris...
...I asked...
...I brought Napoleon his pint of beer, in a basin...
...He knows my ways and I know his...
...Would you sell him...
...As I buttoned up my overcoat, I looked at the dog beside the stove...
...The only occupants of the room were the proprietor and a dog...
...I guess you'll do...
...Recently it has acquired a coat of paint, but when I first saw it, five years ago, it was as weatherstained and uninviting as an abandoned farm house...
...The shirt and trousers were neatly kept, as were the black gaiter boots he wore...
...Otherwise he'd have gone into the parlor...
...But does he want it...
Vol. 10 • August 1929 • No. 16
