run away from Ithaca to Washington during that absorbing fight. By
reason of his father's position in the Democratic party, he could
get in behind the scenes as few young men could; and he took me
with him. I saw the whole amazing thing. I made up my mind then and
there that only three or four men in this country counted, and that
there was little chance of rising to be one of those three or four
by the ordinary methods."

He was, when he said this, at the apex of his career, behind the
scenes of the greatest World Congress ever held, following the
greatest War the world had ever known. And he had been behind the
scenes as had no other man, in Europe as a privileged onlooker with
both belligerents, and in America as the confidant of tremendous
events.

He was there, as in his college days, at the Hayes-Tilden contest,
by grace of a friend whose influence had been sufficient to secure
him his opportunities. The parallel was in his mind, and he
regarded it with self-approval. He had chosen his course and chosen
it wisely. It had led him to the greatest peace-making in history.

There was a little more self-revelation. He and Morton had prepared
for college with Yale in view. But Morton had flunked his entrance
examinations at Yale and afterward succeeded in passing the Cornell
tests. House had gone to Cornell to be with his friend, an early
indication of a capacity for self-effacement, for attachment to the
nearest great man at hand who could take him behind the scenes.

The mystery of Colonel House is that he has been possessed all his
life, almost passionately, with that instinct which makes boys run