The Pope stood up abruptly—­so abruptly that Cardinal Martin sprang up too, apprehensive and terrified.  It seemed that this young man had gone too far.

Then the Pope sat down again, extending his hand.

“God bless you, my son.  You have leave to go....  Will your Eminence stay for a few minutes?”

CHAPTER III

I

The Cardinal said very little to Percy when they met again that evening, beyond congratulating him on the way he had borne himself with the Pope.  It seemed that the priest had done right by his extreme frankness.  Then he told him of his duties.

Percy was to retain the couple of rooms that had been put at his disposal; he was to say mass, as a rule, in the Cardinal’s oratory; and after that, at nine, he was to present himself for instructions:  he was to dine at noon with the Cardinal, after which he was to consider himself at liberty till Ave Maria:  then, once more he was to be at his master’s disposal until supper.  The work he would principally have to do would be the reading of all English correspondence, and the drawing up of a report upon it.

Percy found it a very pleasant and serene life, and the sense of home deepened every day.  He had an abundance of time to himself, which he occupied resolutely in relaxation.  From eight to nine he usually walked abroad, going sedately through the streets with his senses passive, looking into churches, watching the people, and gradually absorbing the strange naturalness of life under ancient conditions.  At times it appeared to him like an historical dream; at times it seemed that there was no other reality; that the silent, tense world of modern civilisation was itself a phantom, and that here was the simple naturalness of the soul’s childhood back again.  Even the reading of the English correspondence did not greatly affect him, for the stream of his mind was beginning to run clear again in this sweet old channel; and he read, dissected, analysed and diagnosed with a deepening tranquillity.

There was not, after all, a great deal of news.  It was a kind of lull after storm.  Felsenburgh was still in retirement; he had refused the offers made to him by France and Italy, as that of England; and, although nothing definite was announced, it seemed that he was confining himself at present to an unofficial attitude.  Meanwhile the Parliaments of Europe were busy in the preliminary stages of code-revision.  Nothing would be done, it was understood, until the autumn sessions.