"Whatever I might do, I should not be guilty of prying into matters that my husband kept hidden." "Then you admit a husband's right to keep matters hidden from his wife ?" "Why not ?" "Madam," Samoval bowed to her, "your future husband is to be envied on yet another count." And thus the conversation drifted, Samoval conceiving that he had obtained all the information of which Lady O'Moy was possessed, and satisfied that he had obtained all that for the moment he required.
How to proceed now was a more difficult matter, to be very seriously considered--how to obtain from Sir Terence the key in question, and reach the plans so essential to Marshal Massena.
He was at table with them, as you know, when Sir Terence and Colonel Grant arrived.

He and the colonel were presented to each other, and bowed with a gravity quite cordial on the part of Samoval, who was by far the more subtle dissembler of the two.

Each knew the other perfectly for what he was; yet each was in complete ignorance of the extent of the other's knowledge of himself; and certainly neither betrayed anything by his manner.
At table the conversation was led naturally enough by Tremayne to Wellington's general order against duelling.

This was inevitable when you consider that it was a topic of conversation that morning at every table to which British officers sat down.

Tremayne spoke of the measure in terms of warm commendation, thereby provoking a sharp disagreement from Samoval.