It may not be altogether honest.

I don't know what is.

But it's a deal honester than defending thieves and bamboozling juries.

How is your wife ?" "She's pretty well, thank you." Stanbury knew at once from the tone of his friend's voice that there was something wrong.
"And Louis the less ?" he said, asking after Trevelyan's child.
"He's all right." "And Miss Rowley?
When one begins one's inquiries one is bound to go through the whole family." "Miss Rowley is pretty well," said Trevelyan.
Previously to this, Trevelyan when speaking of his sister-in-law to Stanbury, had always called her Nora, and had been wont to speak of her as though she were almost as much the friend of one of them as of the other.

The change of tone on this occasion was in truth occasioned by the sadness of the man's thoughts in reference to his wife, but Stanbury attributed it to another cause.