"Mrs. Mallison," her counsel persisted, but with shaken bravado—"happens to know her husband has been spending too much of his time of late in the society of Mrs. McFee."
"In brief: you have had the effrontery to force your way into a private residence in the hope of securing evidence for divorce proceedings?"
"You've got the idea."
"O insolent!" Folly flamed.
It was now again necessary for Lanyard firmly to put down interference, lest his diplomacy fail. "By your leave, Folly: permit me to deal with these gentry. Their account of themselves is much too ingenious to lose. If we let them rattle on—who knows?—we may learn something to their disadvantage."
At this the rogue of ruder mien concluded that he, for one, had had enough. "Come on," he mumbled, plucking at Howlin's sleeve: "le's get out o' this."
"Not so fast. You entered by force; you will leave in the good pleasure of Mrs. McFee. And then Mr. Mallison will go with you."
"What's that?" the lawyer demanded. "Mallison's here?"
"We have no wish to deceive you."
"But where?" the slighted wife shrilly objected. "I don't see him . . ."