When they finally left, one after another, their manner was still abstracted and they said their good-nights in low voices.

There were two reasons for this behaviour.
The first was that the Ambassador and his guests had received the details of the greatest infamy which any supposedly civilized state had perpetrated since the massacre of Saint Bartholomew.

The second was the conviction that the United States would at once declare war on Germany.
On this latter point several of the guests expressed their ideas and one of the most shocked and outspoken was Colonel House.

For a month the President's personal representative had been discussing with British statesmen possible openings for mediation, but all his hopes in this direction now vanished.

That President Wilson would act with the utmost energy Colonel House took for granted.