"
Early in May Burton joined her on a lengthy leave of absence, and they
did a great deal of visiting, and enjoyed themselves generally. Isabel's
_Inner Life of Syria_ was published at this time, and she was very
anxious about it. It had taken sixteen months to write. The evening
of the day on which it made its appearance she went to a party, and the
first person she saw whom she knew was a well-known editor, who greeted
her with warm congratulations on her book. She says, "It made me as
happy as if somebody had given me a fortune."
The favourable reception which was accorded to _The Inner Life of Syria_,
which was largely devoted to a defence of her husband's action when
Consul at Damascus, encouraged Isabel to proceed further on his behalf.
So she wrote to, or interviewed, every influential friend she knew, with
a view of inducing the Government to make Burton K. C. B., and she
prepared a paper setting forth his claims and labours in the public
service, which was signed by thirty or forty of the most influential
personages of the day. She also induced them to ask that Burton should
either return to Damascus, or be promoted to Morocco, Cairo, Tunis, or
Teheran. Unfortunately her efforts met with no success, though she
renewed them again through another source three years later. In one
sense, however, she succeeded; for though she could not convert the
Government to her view, the press unanimously took up the cause for
Burton, and complained that the Government did not give him his proper
place in official life, and called him the "neglected Englishman.
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