CHAPTER V
I
Percy Franklin, the new Cardinal-Protector of England, came slowly along the passage leading from the Pope's apartments, with Hans Steinmann, Cardinal-Protector of Germany, blowing at his side. They entered the lift, still in silence, and passed out, two splendid vivid figures, one erect and virile, the other bent, fat, and very German from spectacles to flat buckled feet.
At the door of Percy's suite, the Englishman paused, made a little gesture of reverence, and went in without a word.
A secretary, young Mr. Brent, lately from England, stood up as his patron came in.
"Eminence," he said, "the English papers are come."
Percy put out a hand, took a paper, passed on into his inner room, and sat down.
There it all was—gigantic headlines, and four columns of print broken by startling title phrases in capital letters, after the fashion set by America a hundred years ago. No better way even yet had been found of misinforming the unintelligent.
He looked at the top. It was the English edition of the Era. Then he read the headlines. They ran as follows:
