— 5 — THE POPEThe chamber in the Vatican was so dimly, richly lit with jewelled and deep-coloured lamps that at first Theirry thought himself alone. He looked round and saw silver walls hung with tapestries of violet and gold; pillars with columns of sea-green marble and capitals of shining mosaic supported a roof encrusted with jasper and jade; the floor, of Numidian marble, was spread with Indian silk carpets; here and there stood crystal bowls of roses, white and crimson, fainting in the close, sweet air. At the far end of the room was a dais, and Theirry, as his eyes became used to the wine-coloured gloom, saw that someone sat there; someone so splendidly robed and so still that it seemed more like one of the images Theirry had seen worshipped in Constantinople than a human being. He s
