"I have been desirous of making certain enquiries regarding my husband's 
whereabouts and activities, which have been a mystery to me almost since the 
moment he departed," she said, "and yet I was led to believe, from the very 
general and guarded statements he made to me, that the nature of those 
activities is secret, and that, if Your Grace has any knowledge of 
them—and that you do, is of course merely a convenient supposition on my 
part—you must treat that knowledge with flawless discretion. It goes 
without saying, I trust, that I would not use even my feeble powers of 
persuasion to induce you to violate the trust reposed in you by a higher 
power."