She always called herself "a child of the Foreign
Office," and she had many friends there among the permanent officials.
She brought every influence she could think of to bear. She went to
the Foreign Office day after day, refusing to take "No" for an answer,
until at last she simply forced Lord Granville to see her; and when he
saw her, she forced him to hear what she had to say. The interview
resulted in his saying "that he would be happy to consider anything she
might lay before him on the subject of Captain Burton's recall from
Damascus." He could hardly have said less, and he could not well have
said more. However, she took him very promptly at his word. She
occupied herself for three months in getting up her husband's case,
and in inducing him to consent to its being put clearly before Lord
Granville. By way of going to the root of the matter she insisted on
knowing from the Foreign Office the true reasons of his recall. They
gave her a long list--the list set forth in the previous chapter. She
answered them point by point. Burton of course helped, and the thing
was done in his name. The whole matter was subsequently published in
the form of a Blue Book--the book before referred to.
The controversy between Isabel and the Foreign Office, if it can so be
called, ended in January, 1872, three months after her return to England;
and it terminated in a dialectical triumph for her, and the offer of
several small posts for her husband, which he indignantly refused.
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