He leaned over, peered at it intensely, and then quickly turned to the Foreign Secretary: "If you don't stop these seizures, Sir Edward, some day you'll have your entire room papered with things like that!" Not long afterward Sir Edward in his turn scored on Page.

The Ambassador called to present one of the many State Department notes.

The occasion was an embarrassing one, for the communication was written in the Department's worst literary style.

It not infrequently happened that these notes, in the form in which Page received them, could not be presented to the British Government; they were so rasping and undiplomatic that Page feared that he would suffer the humiliation of having them returned, for there are certain things which no self-respecting Foreign Office will accept.

On such occasions it was the practice of the London Embassy to smooth down the language before handing the paper to the Foreign Secretary.