But now that Russia has undergone a complete change of regime, if the former Tsarist Russia diplomats were present, they probably wouldn't be drifting about as leisurely as they are now.
As for France, it was probably feeling stifled; after all, France knew very well it no longer had the strength to keep fighting, but the French hatred of Germany had sunk into their bones, which made the French delegation's mood extremely complicated.
Frier chose to turn a blind eye to all this; so long as the two sides didn't start shouting at each other or come to blows, things were not too bad. At the last conference, the delegates on both sides had had terrible tempers, and it had taken quite an effort to break up their quarrels.
