A lot of old baggage will never be recovered after this war: that's certain.

During a little after-dinner speech in a club not long ago I indulged in a pleasantry about excessive impedimenta.

Lord Derby, Minister of War and a bluff and honest aristocrat, sat near me and he whispered to me--"That's me." "Yes," I said, "that's you," and the group about us made merry at the jest.

The meaning of this is, they now joke about what was the most solemn thing in life three years ago.
None of this conveys the idea I am trying to explain--the change in the English point of view and outlook--a half century's change in less than three years, radical and fundamental change, too.

The mother of the Duke of X came to see me this afternoon, hobbling on her sticks and feeble, to tell me of a radiant letter she had received from her granddaughter who has been in Washington visiting the Spring Rices.