him as good a report as I could, reminding him of the great
change in the attitude of all Latin-America caused by the President's
patient policy with Mexico. When he said, "Mexico is a bad problem," I
couldn't resist the impulse to reply: "When Mexico troubles you, think
of--Ireland. As there are persons in England who concern themselves with
Mexico, so there are persons in the United States who concern themselves
about Ireland. Ireland and Mexico have each given trouble for two
centuries. Yet these people talk about them as if they could remove all
trouble in a month."

"Quite true," he said, and smiled himself into silence. Then he talked
about more or less frivolous subjects; and, as always, he asked about
Mr. Bryan and Mr. Roosevelt, "alike now, I suppose, in their present
obscure plight." I told him I was going from his house to the House of
Lords to see Sir Edward Grey metamorphosed into Viscount Grey of
Fallodon.

"The very stupidest of the many stupid ceremonies that we have," said
he--very truly.

He spoke of my "onerous duties" and so on and so on--tut, tut! talk that
gets nowhere. But he did say, quite sincerely, I think, that my
frankness called forth frankness and avoided misunderstanding; for he
has said that to other people about me.

Such is the Prime Minister of Great Britain in this supreme crisis in
English history, a remarkable man, of an abnormally quick mind, pretty
nearly a great man, but now a spent force, at once nimble and weary.
History may call him Great. If it do, he will owe this judgment to the
war, with the conduct of which his name will be forever associated.

II

Mr. and Mrs. Page's homecoming was a tragedy. They sailed from Liverpool
on August 3rd, and reached New York on the evening of August 11th. But
sad news awaited them upon the dock. About two months previously their
youngest son, Frank, had been married to Miss Katherine Sefton, of
Auburn, N.Y., and the young couple had settled down in Garden City, Long
Island. That was the summer when the epidemic of infantile paralysis
swept over the larger part of the United States. The young bride was
stricken; the case was unusually rapid and unusually severe; at the
moment of the Pages' arrival, they were informed that there was
practically no hope; and Mrs. Frank Page died at two o'clock on the
afternoon of the following day. The Pages had always been a particularly
united and happy family; this was the first time that they had