on paper,” Mr. Wilson remarked to Mr. Laughlin, during one of the latter’s visits to Washington.  “I could never resist him—­I get more information from his letters than from any other single source.  Tell him to keep it up.”  It was during this period that the President used occasionally to read Page’s letters to the Cabinet, expressing his great appreciation of their charm and historical importance.  “The President quoted from one of the Ambassador’s letters to the Cabinet to-day,” a member of the Cabinet wrote to Mrs. Page in February, 1915. “‘Some day,’ the President said, ’I hope that Walter Page’s letters will be published.  They are the best letters I have ever read.  They make you feel the atmosphere in England, understand the people, and see into the motives of the great actors.’” The President repeated this statement many times, and his letters to Page show how greatly he enjoyed and profited from this correspondence.  But after the sinking of the Lusitania and the Arabic his attitude toward Page and his letters changed.

He now found little pleasure or satisfaction in the Page communications.  When Mr. Wilson found that one of his former confidants had turned out to be a critic, that man instantaneously passed out of his life.  And this was now Page’s fate; the friendship and associations of forty years were as though they had never been.  Just why Mr. Wilson did not recall his Ambassador is a question that has puzzled Page’s friends.  He would sometimes refer to him as a man who was “more British than the British,” as one who had been taken completely captive by British blandishments, but he never came to the point of dismissing him.  Perhaps he did not care to face the public scandal that such an act would have caused; but a more plausible reason is that Page, despite the causes which he had given for irritation, was indispensable to him.  Page’s early letters had furnished the President ideas which had taken shape in Wilson’s policies, and, disagreeable as the communications now became, there are evidences that they influenced the solitary statesman in the White House, and that they had much to do in finally forcing Mr. Wilson into the war.  The alternative question, as to why Page did not retire when he found himself so out of sympathy with the President, will be sufficiently answered in subsequent chapters; at present it may be said that he did resign and only consented to remain at the urgent request of Washington.  In fact, all during 1915 and 1916, there seemed to be a fear in Washington that Page would definitely abandon the London post.  On one occasion, when the newspapers published rumours to this effect, Page received an urgent despatch from Mr. Lansing.  The message came at a time—­the date was October 26, 1915—­when Page was especially discouraged over the Washington policy.  “Representatives of the press,” said Mr. Lansing, “have repeated rumours that you are planning to resign.  These have been brought to the President’s attention, and both he and I have denied them.  Still these rumours persist, and they cause both the President and me great anxiety.  We cannot believe that they are well founded.