296 MEMOIRS OF
made an integral part of the Treaty of Peace is of final force, and there is no basis whatever for the reports that a change in this decision was contemplated." So much for the "trades" > made in Wilson's absence. The statement caused a sensation. My husband's study became the daily meeting place of the so-called Big Four—Clemenceau, Lloyd George, Orlando and Wilson. The walls of the ante-chamber connecting my apartment with my husband's were hung with huge maps on which new boundaries were traced. The room buzzed with experts, passing in and out of the study, and up and down the stairs. The ballroom on the second floor was converted into an office, alive with the clatter of typewriters.
"All to do over again," my husband had said to me on the night we arrived. So it was, and against increasing odds. The French and the English papers had taken up the cause of the opposition to a moderate, workable peace, and to the League. Partisan opposition was increasing at home. In addition to his fight to keep the Covenant of the League in the Treaty, the President had also to procure amendments to that instrument to allay critical opinion at home. Not all this critical opinion was hostile. The President was in communication, by letter and by cable, with Mr. Taft, whose attitude was helpful and understanding. He believed some of-the changes advocated by friendly home critics in truth unnecessary, but his urging of their acceptance was to strengthen the League's case in the face of the hostile opposition.
To satisfy home demands without impairing the League's structure was one task. Another was to meet foreign opposition, particularly that of cynical old Clemenceau. Sessions lasted far into the night. The President grew thin and grey, but there was no resisting his determined purpose to hold the delegates to their pledge to incorporate die League into the Treaty, and to discover a formula for acceptable amendments. Under this terrific strain of work and anxiety a more robust man might have broken. But had not a severe attack