tragedy. The president's first _Lusitania_ note for a time restored the
Ambassador's confidence; it seemed to show that the President intended
to hold Germany to that "strict accountability" which he had threatened.
But Mr. Wilson's course now presented new difficulties to his
Ambassador. Still Page believed that the President, in his own way and
in his own time, would find a path out of his dilemma that would protect
the honour and the safety of the United States. If any of the Embassy
subordinates became impatient over the procedure of Washington, he did
not find a sympathetic listener in the Ambassador. The whole of London
and of Europe might be resounding with denunciations of the White House,
but Page would tolerate no manifestations of hostility in his presence.
"The problem appears different to Washington than it does to us," he
would say to his confidants. "We see only one side of it; the President
sees all sides. If we give him all the facts, he will decide the thing
wisely." Englishmen with whom the Ambassador came into contact soon
learned that they could not become flippant or critical about Mr. Wilson
in his presence; he would resent the slightest hostile remark, and he
had a way of phrasing his rebukes that usually discouraged a second
attempt. About this time Page began to keep closely to himself, and to
decline invitations to dinners and to country houses, even those with
which he was most friendly. The reason was that he could not meet
Englishmen and Englishwomen, or even Americans who were resident in
England, on his old easy familiar terms; he knew the ideas which
everybody entertained about his country, and he knew also what they were
saying, when he was not among them; the restraint which his presence
necessarily put upon his friends produced an uncongenial atmosphere, and
the Ambassador therefore gave up, for a time, those distractions which
had ordinarily proved such a delightful relief from his duties. For the
first time since he had come to England he found himself a solitary man.
He even refused to attend the American Luncheon Club in London because,