He discussed this with her, quietly, as a matter of business entrusted to him, explained what steps he had taken, what letters he had written; when he expected definite news from the War Office.

She met him on the same ground.
"Yes, he could not have done better." She trusted him absolutely.
And in fact he had been better than his word.

Ultimate success, to be sure, was certain.

It were strange if Mr.Westcote, who had opened his purse to support a troop of Yeomanry, who held two parliamentary seats at the Government's service and two members at call to bully the War Office whenever he desired, who might at any time have had a baronetcy for the asking--it were strange indeed if Mr.Westcote could not obtain so trivial a favour as the exchange of a prisoner.

He could do this, but he could not appreciably hurry the correspondence by which Pall Mall bargained a Frenchman in the forest of Dartmoor against an Englishman in the fortress of Briancon in the Hautes Alpes.