anion to the shore for help, and lying down, stretched out
his walking stick to see if the lady in the water, or her friend, could
catch hold of it. Seeing that this was impossible, as they neither of
them could reach it, he rose to his feet and took off his coat. The
other skaters implored him not to attempt to rescue them as it meant
certain death.

"What else can I do?" said young Harper, and plunged into the icy
current. Their dead bodies were found the next morning.

Hearing that Mr. MacKenzie King had written a memoir of Harper--who had
been his greatest friend--I begged him to give me a copy of it. He sent
it to me with his autograph in it, and asked me to sign his volume of my
own autobiography. I was truly sorry to say good-bye to the Canadian
Premier.

We returned to Montreal the next morning where I found my room a garden
of flowers given to me by Mrs. Reed, Mrs. Lawford and Lady Drummond. I
addressed a ballroom that night full of empty chairs and chandeliers,
but was consoled by my flowers, and the ladies with whom I afterwards
went to supper; and I hope and think I have made lasting friendships
with Mrs. Hayter Reed and Mrs. Lawford.

Mrs. Reed told me that the little son of friends of hers who had always
refused to meet a Jew, had disconcerted them, one day, by saying in a
reproachful voice,

"Mother, you never told me Jesus Christ was a Jew."

Seeing a distressed expression upon his mother's face, he added
consolingly: "But it doesn't matter, since God was a Presbyterian."

Lying awake that night, I wondered what I would have felt had I married
a man who had consented to be either Governor General of Canada or
Viceroy of India. I can imagine no career, excepting perhaps that of a
minor royalty, that I would have minded as much. Not all the great
functions, personal prestige, wonderful scenery, pig-sticking in the
East, or skating in the Dominion, would make up to me for friendships
without intimacy, and grandeur without gaiety. I came to the conclusion
that only men of a certain kind of vanity and ambition, or animated by
the highest sense of public duty could ever be found to fill these
honourable positions.

X: REFLECTIONS AT LARGE

REFLECTIONS AT LARGE

DRAWBACKS OF AMERICAN JOURNALISM--SENSATIONAL HEADLINES; FEAR OF
THE PRESS--CONTROVERSY ON PROHIBITION WITH LORD LEE--IMPRESSIONS OF
U. S. SENATE

We breakfasted at 5.30 a.m. the next morning and arrived at New York