ABSTRACT
FROM THE OTHER SIDE of the glass doors the lobby of the Pera Palas is all striated marble. The marble is mock-marble, and the old hotel is a dowager who has seen better days but keeps up the appearances. Outside the doors, life is sound and fury and you know what it signifies. Inside, they have the wit to deny this. The inner lobby is an atrium, rising two stories high. In the center, the facets of an ancient chandelier pick up the electric light from the sconces in the wall. Around the chandelier runs a little arcade, like the mezzanine floor in a theater. Antique chairs and settles, some upholstered in fading plush, are backed against the revetments. In the lift is a bench with plumped-up cushions. The gates that open on the lift are done in black and silver filigree, and the vest the operator wears is stiffened with buckram and sewn with gold thread.
