"By giving colour to the lies told about me and the Ledwiths," he said in a hard voice—"by hinting that Mary Ledwith, free to marry, is accepted by my aunt; and the rest is up to me! That's what that female relative of mine has just done—" His big, white teeth closed with a click and he spurred his horse cruelly again and checked him until the slavering creature almost reared over backward.
"If you maltreat that horse again, Langly, I'll leave you. Do you understand?" she said, exasperated.
"I beg your pardon—" Again his jaw fairly snapped, but the horse did not suffer from his displeasure.
"What has enraged you so?" she demanded.
"This whole business. There isn't anything my aunt could have done more vicious, more contemptible, than to visit Mrs. Ledwith at this moment. I'll get it from every quarter, now."
"I suppose she will, too."
"My aunt? No such luck!"
"I mean Mrs. Ledwith."
"She? Oh, I suppose so."
Strelsa said between tightening lips: