"At a wife's obedience, Lady Eynesford."
"Then," said Coxon, "I shall indulge myself by imagining that I have your approbation."
"And what is going to happen?" asked Eleanor, for about the twentieth time that day.
Coxon smiled and shook his head.
"They all do that," observed Sir John. "Come, Coxon, admit you don't know."
"We'd better suppose that it's as the Chief Justice says," answered Coxon, whose smile still hinted wilful reticence.
"But think how uninteresting it makes you!" protested Eleanor.
"Oh, I don't agree," said Lady Eynesford. "I am studying every line of Mr. Coxon's face, and trying to find out for myself."
"I told you," he said in a lower voice, and under cover of a joke Sir John was retailing to Eleanor, "that I was a bad hand at concealment."