The "too proud to fight" speech was in Page's mind nothing less than a tragedy.

The president's first _Lusitania_ note for a time restored the Ambassador's confidence; it seemed to show that the President intended to hold Germany to that "strict accountability" which he had threatened.
But Mr.Wilson's course now presented new difficulties to his Ambassador.

Still Page believed that the President, in his own way and in his own time, would find a path out of his dilemma that would protect the honour and the safety of the United States.

If any of the Embassy subordinates became impatient over the procedure of Washington, he did not find a sympathetic listener in the Ambassador.

The whole of London and of Europe might be resounding with denunciations of the White House, but Page would tolerate no manifestations of hostility in his presence.
"The problem appears different to Washington than it does to us," he would say to his confidants.