I've never known quite such a condition in American life." Perhaps the President had no desire to discuss inconvenient matters with his Ambassador to Great Britain, but Page was certainly determined to have an interview with the President.
"I'm not going back to London," he wrote Mr.Laughlin, "till the President has said something to me or at least till I have said something to him.

I am now going down to Garden City and New York till the President send for me; or, if he do not send for me, I'm going to his house and sit on his front steps till he come out!" Page had brought from England one of the medals which the Germans had struck in honour of the _Lusitania_ sinking, and one reason why he particularly wished to see the President alone was to show him this memento.
Another reason was that in early September Page had received important news from London concerning the move which Germany was making for peace and the attitude of Great Britain in this matter.

The several plans which Germany had had under consideration had now taken the form of a definite determination to ask for an armistice before winter set in.

A letter from Mr.Laughlin, Charge d'affaires in Page's absence, tells the story.
_From Irwin Laughlin_ Embassy of the United States of America.
London, August 30, 1916.
DEAR MR.

PAGE: For some little time past I have heard persistent rumours, which indeed are more than rumours, since they have come from important sources, of an approaching movement by Germany toward an early armistice.