Moreover, Lord Curzon would vary his moods of con- temptuous
and sombre magnitude with the March sunshine of boisterous geniality. I recollect an occasion, in 1920, when he was visited in London by M. Stamboliski, the Agrarian Prime Minister of Bulgaria. M. Stamboliski de- rived but little political comfort from that interview. But when, shattered and indeed alarmed by the frigidity of his reception, he staggered to the door, Lord Curzon accom- panied him to the very entrance of the lift, and while wait- ing for that antiquated contrivance to adjust itself jerkily to the massive displacement of the Bulgarian Prime Minister, he flung his arm around the vast back of Stamboliski and patted him gently upon the shoulder. In reporting this incident to me, the Bulgarian Minister in London added the suggestive comment: "7'ai explique au President du Conseil que ce geste là etait pour un Lord."
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