He continued his promenade but presently came back to her:
"You know well enough who I want to marry. If you say or do one thing to interfere I'll see that you figure in the Yellows."
He thought a moment; the colour slowly returned to her face. After a fit of coughing she struggled to rise from her chair. He let her pant and scuffle and kick for a while, then opened the door and summoned her footman.
"I'm sorry I cannot drive with you this evening," he said quietly, as the footman supported Mrs. Sprowl to her feet, "but I've promised the Wycherlys. Pray offer my compliments and friendly wishes to Mrs. Ledwith."
When she had gone he walked back into the library, picked up the telephone and finally got Molly Wycherly on the wire.
"Won't you ask me to dinner?" he said. "I've an explanation to make to Mrs. Leeds and I'd be awfully obliged to you."
There was a silence, then Molly said, deliberately:
"You must be a very absent-minded young man. I saw your aunt for a moment this afternoon and she said that you are dining with her at Mrs. Ledwith's."
"She was mistaken—" began Sprowl quietly, but Molly cut him short with a laughing "good-bye," and hung up the receiver.
"That was Langly," she remarked, turning to Strelsa who was already dressed for dinner and who had come into Molly's boudoir to observe the hair-dressing and comprehensive embellishment of that young matron's person by a new maid on probation.