God forbid. The wind might change (c)
One more question about "Easy Virtue" movie lines, if I may. There is a following conversation taking place:
Mrs. Whittaker (very disapprovingly): You're smiling, Jim.
Mr. Whittaker: God forbid. The wind might change.
Could you please tell me what exactly does Mr. Whittaker's phrase mean? Is it an ironical "Of course I didn't" or a scoffing "Oh what a catastrophe"?
I tried to google it but I guess it's too obvious to attract anybody's attention so I haven't found anything of use.
*If there is a context needed, there is a link to this moment: https://youtu.be/JRJ8vghpmaU?t=2253 (37:45). Sorry, the video quality is extremely low, but that's the only freely available video containing this conversation that I've managed to find on Youtube.