Perhaps he was never quite fixed in his mind.

The presidency is a wondrous lure.

Once out of the White House--what else and what----?
II Upon his return from one of his several foreign journeys a party of some hundred or more of his immediate personal friends gave him a private dinner at a famous uptown restaurant.

I was placed next him at table.

It goes without saying that we had all sorts of a good time--he Caesar and I Brutus--the prevailing joke the entente between the two.
"I think," he began his very happy speech, "that I am the bravest man that ever lived, for here I have been sitting three hours by the side of Brutus--have repeatedly seen him clutch his knife--without the blink of an eye or the turn of a feature." To which in response when my turn came I said: "You gentlemen seem to be surprised that there should be so perfect an understanding between our guest and myself.