"I will sell them to you for the price of your bouquet," said Maitrank. "It is my turn now. Won't you have your guests in to supper?"
The Countess looked round her helplessly. The sound of the music, the ripple of laughter, the murmur of voices maddened her. She knew that the crash must come some time, but she had not dreamt of a humiliation like this. Lawrence came sauntering down the steps. She flew to him.
Could he help her. She was in great trouble, and she knew that she could trust him. She owed Maitrank a lot of money; he had chosen to humiliate her by actually putting these vulgar bailiffs in tonight, of all times. Those pleading eyes would have melted a heart of stone. Lawrence seemed to be greatly distressed.
"I fancy I can see a way out of the difficulty," he said. "I do not wish to pry into your affairs, but in a novelist's business one gets to know things. And I, too, am in a great quandary. Do you recollect the flower farm near Ajaccio?"
"I am going mad," Leona whispered. "To allude to that tonight! Well, I have got on in the world like other people. No need to allude to that. What can it possibly have to do with the matter?"
"One never knows," said Lawrence. "But I see you remember. You also remember the marvellous secret of the tuberose scent. For my own purposes I require a little of it, my story demands it. I am talking business now. Give me the little bottle from the Antoinette cabinet in your boudoir, and I will get rid of those men for you."
Slowly Leona Lalage took the speaker in from head to foot. Her face had grown deadly pale. But she could make nothing of Lawrence's face. All the same, it was quite evident that he meant every word that he said.
"You shall have it," she said suddenly. "How you got to know so much of my history you shall tell me presently. But the tuberose is yours."
She flashed along the hall. Directly she was gone Lawrence signalled to Maitrank, who stood in the background. The latter produced a letter which he handed to the foremost of the two intruders.
"As you see, this is from the solicitor who employs you," he said. "If I like to change my mind, and ask you to go you are to obey. I ask you to go. Say nothing of this, and I will see you are suitably rewarded in the morning."