Opinion on this subject was, so far as I knew, nearly unanimous among business men. Every one who owned shares in Mexican companies, every one who had invested hopefully a little while before in Mexican railways, every one who had any kind of interest in Mexico was of the same opinion about the inaction of the American Government.
“I think it is a muddle,” said Ascher, “but the idea in the minds of the men who are making the muddle is a fine one. If only the world could be worked on those principles——”
“But it can’t.”
“Not yet,” said Ascher. “Perhaps never. Yet the idea on which the Government in Washington proceeds is a noble one. Respect for constitutional order should be a greater thing as a principle of statesmanship than obvious expediency.”
The man’s unnatural detachment of view worried me. It was the same when Gorman blared out his stereotyped abuse of financiers, his well-worn cliches about money kings and poison spiders. Ascher agreed with him. Ascher, apparently, had some approval for the doctrinaire constitutionalism of university professors turned diplomats. I could not follow him to those heights of his.
“I was thinking,” I said, “of going home by way of the West Indies.”
“Yes? You will find it very agreeable. I was there in 1903 and remember enjoying myself greatly.”
“I wish you and Mrs. Ascher would come too. It would be much pleasanter for me if I had you with me.
“It’s very kind of you to say so; but——”
“Besides,” I said, “I should see so much more. If I go by myself I shall step from a steamer into an hotel and from an hotel into a steamer. I shall be forced to buy a Baedeker, if there is a Baedeker for those regions. I shall be a tourist of the ordinary kind. But if I travelled with you I should really see things.”