en--who doesn't want to
listen. It's a terrible thing, Tumulty, when one sees and knows the truth
so absolutely, but cannot convince others. That's been my fate: to be so
sure that I was right (I'm as sure of that now as ever) and yet to fail.
Here--there--it has been always the same. I went over to Paris thinking to
save the Peace: there came a point when I thought it was saved; it would
have been had the Senate backed me--it could have been done then. But when
I put the case to which already we stood pledged, I convinced nobody. They
did not want justice to be done.

TUMULTY. But you had a great following, Governor. You had a wonderful
reception when you got to Paris.

EX-PRES. Yes: in London too. It seemed then as if people were only waiting
to be led. But I'm talking of the politicians now. There was no room for
conviction there; each must stick to his brief. That's what wrecked us.
Not one--not one could I get to own that the right thing was the wise
thing to do: that to be just and fear not was the real policy which would
have saved Europe--and the world.... Look at it now! Step by step, their
failure is coming home to them; but still it is only as failure that they
see it--mere human inability to surmount insuperable difficulties: the
greed, the folly, the injustice, the blindness, the cruelty of it they
don't see. And the people don't teach it them. They can't. No nation--no
victorious nation--has gotten it at heart to say, "We, too, have sinned."
Lest such a thing should ever be said or thought, one of the terms of
peace was to hand over all the blame; so, when the enemy signed the
receipt of it, the rest were acquitted. And in that solemn farce the
Allies found satisfaction! What a picture for posterity!
And when they point and laugh, I shall be there with the rest. It's our
self-righteousness has undone us, Tumulty; it's that which has made us
blind and hard--and dishonest: for there has been dishonesty too. Because
we were exacting reparations for a great wrong, we didn't mind being
unjust to the wrongdoer. And so, in Paris, we spent months, arguing,
prevaricating, manoeuvring, so as to pretend that none had had any share
in bringing the evil about. When I spoke for considerate justice, there
was no living force behind me in that council of the Nations. They wanted
their revenge, and now they've got it: and look what it is costing them!

(_And then the door opens, and an Attendant enters, carrying a, covere