sociates, however, noted a change for the better after the
Battle of the Marne. Except to his most intimate companions he said
little, for he represented a nation that was "neutral"; but the defeat
of the Germans added liveliness to his step, gave a keener sparkle to
his eye, and even brought back some of his old familiar gaiety of
spirit. One day the Ambassador was lunching with Mr. Laughlin and one or
two other friends.

"We did pretty well in that Battle of the Marne, didn't we?" he said.

"Isn't that remark slightly unneutral, Mr. Ambassador?" asked Mr.
Laughlin.

At this a roar of laughter went up from the table that could be heard
for a considerable distance.

About this same time Page's personal secretary, Mr. Harold Fowler, came
to ask the Ambassador's advice about enlisting in the British Army. To
advise a young man to take a step that might very likely result in his
death was a heavy responsibility, and the Ambassador refused to accept
it. It was a matter that the Secretary could settle only with his own
conscience. Mr. Fowler decided his problem by joining the British Army;
he had a distinguished career in its artillery and aviation service as
he had subsequently in the American Army. Mr. Fowler at once discovered
that his decision had been highly pleasing to his superior.

"I couldn't advise you to do this, Harold," Page said, placing his hand
on the young man's shoulder, "but now that you've settled it yourself
I'll say this--if I were a young man like you and in your circumstances,
I should enlist myself."

Yet greatly as Page abhorred the Prussians and greatly as his
sympathies from the first day of the war were enlisted on the side of
the Allies, there was no diplomat in the American service who was more
"neutral" in the technical sense. "Neutral!" Page once exclaimed.
"There's nothing in the world so neutral as this embassy. Neutrality
takes up all our time." When he made this remark he was, as he himself
used to say, "the German Ambassador to Great Britain." And he was
performing the duties of this post with the most conscientious fidelity.
These duties were onerous and disagreeable ones and were made still more
so by the unreasonableness of the German Government. Though the American
Embassy was caring for the more than 70,000 Germans who were then living
in England and was performing numerous other duties, the Imperial
Government never realized that Page and the Embassy staff were doing it
a se