I have done what I can for you.

I hope you will make it unnecessary for me to enter into details with the parties chiefly interested in that affair.

It depends pretty much on what you are able to tell me, whether I can give you the time you mention in your last.

You will consult your own interests best by being quite square," and so on.
The expression which Captain Oliphant mentally applied to the writer as he re-read this pleasant passage was not wholly flattering, and his countenance, as I have said, bore traces of considerable pain.

However, after a little meditation it cleared somewhat, and he wrote:-- "It seems to me a pity you should take up a position which can only end in trouble all round.