The same assurance greeted him several times over.

Every friend wanted to remind him of the enemy's exigency, and to assure him that the enemy's new policy was enough by itself to bring him romping in at last; and to every assurance he presented the same acceptable attitude of desiring for particular reasons to take special note of such valuable views.

At the end he had neither elicited nor imparted a single opinion of any importance; nevertheless, he was quite entitled to his glow of satisfaction.
Among Mr Winter's qualifications for political life was his capacity to arrive at an estimate of the position of the enemy.

He was never persuaded to his own advantage; he never stepped ahead of the facts.
It was one of the things that made him popular with the other side, his readiness to do justice to their equipment, to acknowledge their chances.

There is gratification of a special sort in hearing your points of vantage confessed by the foe; the vanity is soothed by his open admission that you are worthy of his steel.