James Fenner Lee to George D. Bayard, August 17, 1885

Mr. Lee to Mr. Bayard.

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 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.,