This reassured me, but I begged him to confine himself to speech thenceforth, because his facial expression was uncertain.

Even with the most elaborate care it was liable to miss fire.

Smiling should especially be avoided.

What HE might honestly consider a shining success was likely to strike me in a very different light.

I said I liked to see a skeleton cheerful, even decorously playful, but I did not think smiling was a skeleton's best hold.
"Yes, friend," said the poor skeleton, "the facts are just as I have given them to you.