"What's that?" said Adèle, looking over my shoulder.
"What?" said I.
"There. To the right."
It was dark under the ivy, so I thrust in a groping arm.
Almost at once my hand encountered the smooth edge of masonry.
I took out a knife and ripped away some trails, so that we could see better.
There was nothing to show that the pedestal which my efforts revealed had ever supported a statue. But it was plain that such was the office for which it had been set up. Presumably it was one of the series which, according to Vandy's book, had displayed imaginative effigies of the Roman Emperors, and had been done away in 1710. The inscription upon the cornice upheld this conclusion.
PERTINAX IMPERATOR.
I looked at Adèle.
"PER ... IMP ..." said I. "Does the cap fit?"