Mr. Lee to Mr. Bayard.
Vienna, August 17, 1885. (Received August 31.)
Sir: By the advice of Mr. Francis I called on Mr. de Szögyényi on his return from a short holiday; told him I had merely come to pay my respects, as owing to his absence Mr. Francis had been unable to present [Page 38] me. He received me very civilly, and after conversing on indifferent subjects he asked me what I heard from Mr. Bayard about the Keiley matter. I replied that I had no information on the subject from Washington. He then asked me why Mr. Bayard bad not recalled Mr. Keiley, to which I replied that Mr. Bayard could not do it under the circumstances. He asked why, and my reply was that an objection to Mrs. Keiley’s religion (though I must disclaim any knowledge of its accuracy) could not be considered in my country a sufficient reason for recalling Mr. Keiley. He then said, as Count Kalnoky did, it was not a religious question, but a social one. I replied that I did not think Mr. Bayard desired me to discuss the question, and I thought Count Kalnoky’s reply to Mr. Francis’s memorandum of Mr. Bayard’s dispatch closed the question. He then conversed on other subjects for a short time, when he asked me if I had known Baron von Schaeffer in America. I told him I bad only been introduced shortly before leaving home, and had crossed the Atlantic with him to Antwerp, and thence traveled with him to Vienna. Resuming he said, “Schaeffer is a very ill man.” I observed that I believed Baron Schaeffer’s friends in America thought him more seriously ill than he thought himself to be. He then said, “Yes, yes; I hardly think he will return to America.”
We then conversed on other matters for a short time, and I bade him good afternoon, he accompanying me to the door.
I have, &c.,