He put on the proper gravity of a young man commissioned, without a dimple of a smile.

Philip bowed to her stiffly, as we bow to a commanding officer who has insulted us and will hear of it.

But for that, Con would have manoeuvred against his wife to send him downstairs at the lady's heels.

The fellow was a perfect riddle, hard to read as the zebra lines on the skin of a wild jackass--if Providence intended any meaning when she traced them! and it's a moot point: as it is whether some of our poets have meaning and are not composers of zebra.

'No one knows but them above!' he said aloud, apparently to his wife.
'What can you be signifying ?' she asked him.