I was taking the position that they were, in fact, rather close and that this was actually a rather blunt warning of what might happen, not a threat. As I was writing that Lil did, after all, later invite the narrator to dinner, I has shocked with an epiphany. What if Lil invited her friend to dinner to set her up with her husband so the friend might take over the wifely duties that Lil does not want to be bothered with? Eliot might be very subtle here.149) And if you don't give it him, there's others will, I said.
150) Oh is there, she said. Something o' that, I said.
151) Then I'll know who to thank, she said, and give me a straight look.