Mr.Mifflin, the head of the house, even formally thanked Page "for the hearty human way in which you take hold of life." Mr.Ellery Sedgwick, the present editor of the _Atlantic_, has described the somewhat disconcerting descent of Page upon the editorial sanctuary of James Russell Lowell: "Were a visitant from another sphere to ask me for the incarnation of those qualities we love to call American, I should turn to a familiar gallery of my memory and point to the living portrait that hangs there of Walter Page.

A sort of foursquareness, bluntness, it seemed to some; an uneasy, often explosive energy; a disposition to underrate fine drawn nicenesses of all sorts; ingrained Yankee common sense, checking his vaulting enthusiasm; enormous self-confidence, impatience of failure--all of these were in him; and he was besides affectionate to a fault, devoted to his country, his family, his craft--a strong, bluff, tender man.
"Those were the decorous days of the old tradition, and Page's entrance into the 'atmosphere' of Park Street has taken on the dignity of legend.

There were all kinds of signs and portents, as the older denizens will tell you.

Strange breezes floated through the office, electric emanations, and a pervasive scent of tobacco, which--so the local historian says--had been unknown in the vicinity since the days of Walter Raleigh, except for the literary aroma of Aldrich's quarantined sanctum upstairs.

Page's coming marked the end of small ways.