May 9 before – Sam’s notebook entry right before the May 9 entry:

“During 8 years, now, I have filled the post—with some credit, I trust—of self-appointed Ambassador at Large of the U.S. of America——without salary” [NB 40 TS 20].

May 9 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Today, the Nansens to luncheon” [NB 40 TS 20]. Dolmetsch writes,

Fridtjof Nansen, the Norwegian arctic explorer and statesman, staying at the Metropole on a goodwill tour of Austria-Hungary with his wife and small daughter, formed a friendship with the Clemeses. Athough the papers represented it rather grandly as a diner (in Austria, a formal dinner party), the Clemenses hosted a farewell luncheon the day before the Nansens departed for Budapest [147].