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I visited France soon after the entrance of America into that conflict, and during a brief interval of rest at Aix-les-Bains, I chanced upon John G. A. Leishmann and his vivacious daughter, who was Hyde’s wife. She had heard of my political association with President Wilson, but evidently she had forgotten, or was unaware of, my part in the financial downfall of her husband. She confided to me young Hyde’s and her own unhappiness that he had no active part in the service of his country, and begged me to use my influence to obtain for him some position in the American service where he could do his bit. I promised to do what I could.

Upon my return to Paris, young Hyde himself called upon me with words of warm appreciation, both that I had been willing to overlook our late unpleasantness, and that I had not mentioned its existence to his wife. He was anxious to serve, and almost pathetically eager to convince me that he could serve. He had been refused a position on General Pershing’s staff, and wanted me to secure for him a commission from the American Red Cross. He declared that he could obtain for me or others an immediate audience from any person in the French Government, no matter how exalted, and pointed out that by virtue of this capacity he could be of indispensable service. He wished me to name any French official whom I cared to meet. I said I should like very much to meet M. Painlevé informally, and Hyde thereupon, hardly waiting to bid me good-bye, hastened away to make the appointment. He easily made good his boast, so that two days later I had dinner at Hyde’s house, and had a most interesting conversation with Painlevé. I was so impressed with Hyde’s earnestness and with the possibilities of usefulness that lay in his remarkable affiliations with the best French society, that I did intercede for him with Major Murphy and Major Perkins, the heads of the Red Cross, and prevailed upon them to make him a uniformed officer. He was attached to the Paris headquarters of our Red Cross work in France, and, I was afterward told, rendered very useful service.