16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
reflected and went on, 'But at this point I am
necessarily bound by my instructions: any alteration
must take six months to reach me and
those six months, added to the present delay,
will see the decay of the whole structure built
up here and in Spain. I shall have to do the
best I can: yet at the same time I shall endeavour
to avoid committing what we have at
our disposal until we see some strong probability
of success.'
After a silence Gayongos made a gesture of
resignation and said, 'If the Foreign Office
were a firm of marine insurers they would be
bankrupt within a year. But it must be as you
wish, and I shall arrange the agreed meetings,
or at least those that are still of any consequence,
as soon as possible.'
'Before we speak of them, be so good as to
tell me, very briefly, how the situation has
changed.'