And not only willing but anxious.

I couldn't credit him with generous impulses.

For it seemed obvious to me from what I had learned that, to put it mildly, he was not an impulsive person.
"I confess that I can't understand his motive," I exclaimed.
"This is exactly what John wondered at, at first," said Mrs.Fyne.

By that time an intimacy--if not exactly confidence--had sprung up between us which permitted her in this discussion to refer to her husband as John.

"You know he had not opened his lips all that time," she pursued.
"I don't blame his restraint.