iss Page
the Royal chapel in St. James's Palace. This was a distinguished
compliment, as it was the first time that any marriage, in which both
bride and bridegroom were foreigners, had ever been celebrated in this
building, which for centuries has been the scene of royal weddings. The
special place which his daughter had always held in the Ambassador's
affections is apparent in the many letters that now followed her to her
new home in the United States. The unique use Page made of the initials
of his daughter's name was characteristic.

_To Mrs. Charles G. Loring_

London, September 1, 1915.

MY DEAR K.A. P-TAIN:

Here's a joke on your mother and Frank: We three (and Smith) went
up to Broadway in the car, to stay there a little while and then to
go on into Wales, etc. The hotel is an old curiosity shop; you sit
on Elizabethan chairs by a Queen Anne table, on a drunken floor,
and look at the pewter platters on the wall or do your best to look
at them, for the ancient windows admit hardly any light. "Oh!
lovely," cries Frank; and then he and your mother make out in the
half-darkness a perfectly wonderful copper mug on the mantelpiece;
and you go out and come in the ramshackle door (stooping every
time) after you've felt all about for the rusty old iron latch, and
then you step down two steps (or fall), presently to step up two
more. Well, for dinner we had six kinds of meat and two meat pies
and potatoes and currants! My dinner was a potato. I'm old and
infirm and I have many ailments, but I'm not so bad off as to be
able to live on a potato a day. And since we were having a
vacation, I didn't see the point. So I came home where I have seven
courses for dinner, all good; and Mrs. Leggett took my place in the
car. That carnivorous company went on. They've got to eat six
kinds of meat and two meat pies and--currants! I haven't. Your
mother calls me up on the phone every morning--me, who am living
here in luxury, seven courses at every dinner--and asks anxiously,
"And how _are_ you, dear?" I answer: "Prime, and how are _you_?" We
are all enjoying ourselves, you see, and I don't have to eat six
kinds of meat and two meat pies and--currants! They do; and may
Heaven save 'em and get 'em home safe!

[Illustration: Col. Edward M. House. From a painting by P.A.
Laszlo]