Sphinxlike

What about Mrs. Cavendish? I watched her as she sat at the head of the table, graceful, composed, enigmatic. In her soft grey frock, with white ruffles at the wrists falling over her slender hands, she looked very beautiful. When she chose, however, her face could be sphinx-like in its inscrutability.

they get together in the dry riverbed. He writhes over her for a minute or two as she sits sphinxlike, dignified, head straight in the air.

Mrs. Mallowe smiled in a superior and Sphinx-like fashion.

“What we need to avoid at the end is a headline that says ‘Russia Won, America Lost.’” A sphinxlike response. Or perhaps a nonresponse.