that Mr. Hay met me half way in my desire to be friendly,
for I knew enough about him to know that his reputation
was that of a very reticent, very fastidious man -- a person
by no means inclined to fall into the arms of the first
comer. But I don't want to flatter myself. Perhaps the
passport to Hay's heart in my case was my love of Lincoln,
for that he soon saw was real and not assumed. Anyway,
Hay and I soon began to see a great deal of each other,
and he paid me the compliment of confiding in me
throughout the war between Spain and America. He
would have liked to avoid that war and did his very best
to do so, but I knew that all the time he felt it was in-
evitable. I remember well his saying to me that the posi-
tions of the United States and Spain were like two railway
engines on the same track, neither of which would give
way and both of which were advancing. You might delay
the collision, but you could not prevent it, unless one train
cleared out of the way of the other, and to this neither side
in control would agree. Therefore, a collision had to
come, -- and come it did.

Hay loved his tenure of office in England and greatly
regretted that he had to accede to Mr. McKinley's re-
quest that he should go back and become Secretary of
State. He knew the work would be too much for him,
and told me so quite simply and unaffectedly, but he was
never a man to shirk a duty. During his term of office,
he and I were constantly in touch with each other by
letter. Though Hay did not write long letters, he con-
trived in his short notes to say many poignant things, --lb /> often in the form of comments on Spectator articles, for
he was a diligent reader of my paper. One example is so
curious and so interesting that I must set it forth. The
War enables me to do so without any risk of doing injury
in the diplomatic sphere. It concerns the memorable

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