every facility for acquainting themselves with it.  After some weeks the commission reported in favor of the Polish claim with unanimity.  But Mr. Lloyd George rejected their conclusions and insisted on having the report sent back to them for reconsideration.  Again the commissioners went over the familiar ground, but felt obliged to repeat their verdict anew.  Once more, however, the British Premier demurred, and such was his tenacity that, despite Mr. Wilson’s opposition, the final decision of the Conference reversed that of the commission and non-suited the Poles.  By what line of argument, people naturally asked, did the first British delegate come to that conclusion?  That he knew more about the matter than the special Inter-Allied commission is hardly to be supposed.  Indeed, nobody assumed that he was any better informed on that subject than about Teschen.  The explanation put in circulation by interested persons was that, like Socrates, he had his own familiar demon to prompt him, who, like all such spirits, chose to flourish, like the violet, in the shade.  That this source of light was accessible to the Prime Minister may, his apologists hold, one day prove a boon to the peoples whose fate was thus being spun in darkness and seemingly at haphazard.  Possibly.  But in the meanwhile it was construed as an affront to their intelligence and a violation of the promise made to them of “open covenants openly arrived at.”  The press asked why the information requisite for the work had not been acquired in advance as these semi-mystical ways of obtaining it commended themselves to nobody.  Wholly mystical were the methods attributed to one or other of the men who were preparing the advent of the new era.  For superstition of various kinds was supposed to be as well represented at the Paris Conference as at the Congress of Vienna.  Characteristic of the epoch was the gravity with which individuals otherwise well balanced exercised their ingenuity in finding out the true relation of the world’s peace to certain lucky numbers.  For several events connected with the Conference the thirteenth day of the month was deliberately, and some occultists added felicitously, chosen.  It was also noticed that an effort was made by all the delegates to have the Allies’ reply to the German counter-proposals presented on the day of destiny, Friday, June 13th.  When it miscarried a flutter was caused in the dovecotes of the illuminated.  The failure was construed as an inauspicious omen and it caused the spirits of many to droop.  The principal clairvoyante of Paris, Madame N——­, who plumes herself on being the intermediary between the Fates that rule and some of their earthly executors, was consulted on the subject, one knows not with what result.[65] It was given out, however, as the solemn utterance of the oracle in vogue that Mr. Wilson’s enterprise was weighted with original sin; he had made one false step before his arrival in Europe, and that had put everything out of gear.  By enacting fourteen