sores on his feet while sightseeing around London and these, he feared, were

growing septic. I referred his valet to Miss Kenton, but this did not prevent M.

 

Dupont snapping his fingers at me every few hours to say: "Butler! I am in need

of more bandages. "

 

His mood seemed much lifted on seeing Mr Lewis. He and the American senator

greeted each other as old colleagues and they were to be seen together for much

of the remainder of that day, laughing over reminiscences. In fact, one could

see that Mr Lewis's almost constant proximity to M. Dupont was proving a serious

inconvenience to Lord Darlington, who was naturally keen to make close personal

contact with this distinguished gentleman before the discussions began. On

several occasions I witnessed his lordship make attempts to draw M. Dupont aside

fop some private conversation, only for Mr Lewis smilingly to impose himself

upon them with some remark like: "Pardon me, gentlemen, but there's something

that's been greatly puzzling me," so that his lordship soon found himself having

to listen to some more of Mr Lewis's jovial anecdotes. Mr Lewis apart, however,

the other guests, perhaps through awe, perhaps through a sense of antagonism,

kept a wary distance from M. Dupont, a fact that was conspicuous even in that

generally guarded atmosphere, and which seemed to underline all the more the

feeling that it was M. Dupont who somehow held the key to the outcome of the

following days.

 

The conference began on a rainy morning during the last week of March 1923 in

the somewhat unlikely setting of the drawing room - a venue chosen to