Charm school instructors […] can do something even for the plainest of plain Janes.

There is neither need for patronising nor defaitism IMO.

They all said, What can you expect when you put a leg-man into a spot like that? and How can a youngster like that, with only a year's experience in the newspaper business behind him, handle that sort of an assignment? …

In I will be coming if this weather holds up, I will be coming is the apodosis and this weather holds up is the protasis.