'If you say another word against your wife in my hearing I'll make it the last you ever said to anybody.

Now you'd better be gone before I telephone for the police.
Do you understand ?' The two ex-policemen employed by a private agency thought the case was becoming more and more interesting; but at the same time they were made vaguely nervous by Mr.Van Torp's attitude.
'I think you are threatening me,' said the fair man, drawing back a step, and leaving the envelope on the table.
'No,' answered his adversary, 'I'm warning you off my premises, and if you don't go pretty soon I'll telephone for the police.

Is that a threat ?' The last question was addressed to the two men.
'No, sir,' answered one of them.
'It would hardly be to your advantage to have more witnesses of my wife's presence here,' observed the fair man coldly, 'but as I intend to take her home we may as well go at once.

Come, Maud! The carriage is waiting.' The lady, whose name was now spoken for the first time since she had entered Mr.Van Torp's lodging, had not moved from the fireplace since she had taken up her position there.

Women are as clever as Napoleon or Julius Caesar in selecting strong positions when there is to be an encounter, and a fireplace, with a solid mantelpiece to lean against, to strike, to cry upon or to cling to, is one of the strongest.
The enemy is thus reduced to prowling about the room and handling knick-knacks while he talks, or smashing them if he is of a violent disposition.
The lady now leant back against the dingy marble shelf and laid one white-gloved arm along it, in an attitude that was positively regal.
Her right hand might appropriately have been toying with the orb of empire on the mantelpiece, and her left, which hung down beside her, might have loosely held the sceptre.