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M. ZINOVIEFF
243
" In the first place," I replied, " 1 have said it and
written it repeatedly to the Foreign Office. And then,
do not forget, my dear Ambassador, that at the present
moment I am the man who has suffered a reverse,
rightly or wrongly this reverse is imputed to me;
hence I have less credit than I had formerly. Why
do you not confide your thoughts and worries to
M. Sazonoff? I know that you stand high in his
esteem."
"I have spoken to him repeatedly! But you know
how it is—these young people will not listen to me."
(The young people were well over fifty at this time, but
one must admit that the excellent M. Zinovieff was
nearly eighty). " I esteem M. Sazonoff very highly,"
continued my amiable host; "he is gifted and a
gentleman, he is quick-witted and very cultured, and—in
spite of his youth—has a fair amount of experience ; he
judges men and matters remarkably well, especially
when he judges them himself and by himself; he has earned
the perfect confidence of our allies; he is particularly
esteemed in England, which is not an easy thing for a
Russian Minister to be. But his optimism ! his
optimism ! That is the only thing that I deplore in
him, and that I fear for him and for us all!"
" You have just said, my dear Ambassador," 1
replied, " that our Foreign Secretary is a very good
judge when he judges things himself and by himself.
That is absolutely true. But in order to form a
judgment on the general situation, he must weigh the advice
of our agents abroad, beginning with the ambassadors;
if the latter represent things in a favourable light, he
is bound to believe them unless he has grave reason to
distrust their opinion. And then at the Minister’s side,
there are always the Offices . . . that must not be
forgotten."
"Ah, yes! the Offices! But you need not tell me
that!" exclaimed the aged Ambassador, flinging his
arms up to heaven.
And, as a fact, the reports of our representatives
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