The Lone Wolf · Chapter
III: A Point of Interrogation explained
Lanyard dines at Troyon's, observing the Scotland Yard detective Roddy and a party including Comte Remy de Morbihan and an American man and his daughter.
What happens
Lanyard dines at Troyon's, observing the Scotland Yard detective Roddy and a party including Comte Remy de Morbihan and an American man and his daughter. He learns the restaurant has changed management and staff, losing all trace of the boy Marcel. Lanyard's suspicions about Roddy's interest in De Morbihan grow, and he decides to take a room at Troyon's to avoid arousing suspicion.
Themes in this chapter
Surveillance and Paranoia
Lanyard is acutely aware of Roddy's presence and dissembled interest, and feels his own actions are being watched.
Identity and Duality
Lanyard reflects on his unknown origins and possible American heritage, while De Morbihan's public persona contrasts with whispered scandals.
Characters to notice
- Michael Lanyard
Dines at Troyon's, observes Roddy and De Morbihan, and decides to take a room to avoid suspicion.
- Roddy
Scotland Yard detective dining at Troyon's, feigning interest in a newspaper while covertly watching De Morbihan's party.
- Comte Remy de Morbihan
Dining with an American man and his daughter; Lanyard suspects Roddy is trailing him.
- Lucia Bannon
The American girl dining with De Morbihan and the elderly American; described as demure and maternal.
- Ware Bannon
The elderly American man with a racking cough and tormented expression, dining with De Morbihan and the girl.
Key passages
“What the adventurer himself hadn’t known till within the last ten minutes, that he was coming to Troyon’s, Roddy couldn’t possibly have anticipated; ergo, whatever the detective’s business, it had nothing to do with Lanyard.”
Lanyard reasons that since he only decided to go to Troyon's moments ago, Roddy couldn't have known he would be there, so the detective must be after someone else.
Lanyard's logical deduction to calm his suspicions about Roddy's presence.
“Now one doesn’t read the Paris edition of the London Daily Mail with tense excitement. Humanly speaking, it can’t be done.”
Lanyard observes that Roddy's intense focus on the newspaper is obviously feigned, as no one reads that paper with such concentration.
Lanyard's ironic observation about Roddy's unconvincing act.
“He claimed the distinction of being at once the homeliest, one of the wealthiest, and the most-liked man in France.”
De Morbihan was famous for being both very ugly and very rich, yet universally popular.
Description of De Morbihan's paradoxical public image.