Sentence:  When dinner should be over, supper was to follow with scarcely any interval to speak of; and to partake of this other guests should be bidden—Svengali and Gecko, and perhaps one or two more. No ladies! For, as the unsusceptible Laird expressed it, in the language of a <WSD>gillie</WSD> he had once met at a servants' dance in a Highland country house, "Them wimmen spiles the ball!" 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A fishing and hunting guide; a man or boy who attends to a person who is fishing or hunting, especially in Scotland.