And on one of the arm-chairs sat Leo XIII, near a small table on which another lamp with a shade had been placed.

Three newspapers, moreover, lay there, two of them French and one Italian, and the last was half unfolded as if the Pope had momentarily turned from it to stir a glass of syrup, standing beside him, with a long silver-gilt spoon.
In the same way as Pierre saw the Pope's room, he saw his costume, his cassock of white cloth with white buttons, his white skull-cap, his white cape and his white sash fringed with gold and broidered at either end with golden keys.

His stockings were white, his slippers were of red velvet, and these again were broidered with golden keys.

What surprised the young priest, however, was his Holiness's face and figure, which now seemed so shrunken that he scarcely recognised them.

This was his fourth meeting with the Pope.