Greatly as Page loved England he never ceased to preach his Americanism.  That he preferred his own country to any other and that he believed that it was its greatest destiny to teach its institutions to the rest of the world, Page’s letters show; yet this was with him no cheap spread-eagleism; it was a definite philosophy which the Ambassador had completely thought out.  He never hesitated to express his democratic opinions in any company, and only once or twice were there any signs that these ideas jarred a little in certain strongholds of conservatism.  Even in the darkest period of American neutrality Page’s faith in the American people remained complete.  After this country had entered the war and the apparent slowness of the Washington Administration had raised certain questionings, Page never doubted that the people themselves, however irresolute and lukewarm their representatives might be, would force the issue to its only logical end.  Even so friendly a man as Mr. Balfour once voiced a popular apprehension that the United States might not get into the war with all its strength or might withdraw prematurely.  This was in the early period of our participation.  “Who is going to stop the American people and how?” Page quickly replied.  “I think that was a good answer,” he said, as he looked back at the episode in the summer of 1918, when hundreds of thousands of Americans were landing in France every month.  A scrap of his writing records a discussion at a dinner party on this question:  “If you could have a month in any time and any country, what time and what country would you choose?” The majority voted for England in the time of Elizabeth, but Page’s preference was for Athens in the days of Pericles.  Then came a far more interesting debate:  “If you could spend a second lifetime when and where would you choose to spend it?” On this Page had not a moment’s hesitation:  “In the future and in the U.S.A.!” and he upheld his point with such persuasiveness that he carried the whole gathering with him.  His love of anything suggesting America came out on all occasions.  One of his English hostesses once captivated him by serving corn bread at a luncheon.  “The American Ambassador and corn bread!” he exclaimed with all the delight of a schoolboy.  Again he was invited, with another distinguished American, to serve as godfather at the christening of the daughter of an American woman who had married an Englishman.  When the ceremony was finished he leaned over the font toward his fellow godfather.  “Born on July 4th,” he exclaimed, “of an American mother!  And we two Yankee godfathers!  We’ll see that this child is taught the Constitution of the United States!”

One day an American duchess came into Page’s office.

“I am going home for a little visit and I want a passport,” she said.

“But you don’t get a passport here,” Page replied.  “You must go to the Foreign Office.”

His visitor was indignant.