All Page's predecessors for twenty-five years had been rich men who could advance the cost of the Embassy from their own private purses; to meet these expenses, however, Page had been obliged to encroach on the savings of a lifetime, and such liberality on his part necessarily had its limitations.
_To Edward M.House_ London, England, February 13, 1914.
MY DEAR HOUSE:.

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Of course I am open to the criticism of having taken the place at all.

But I was both uninformed and misinformed about the cost as well as about the frightful handicap of having no Embassy.