"How dare you?" she said, in a low tone, not convincingly to the ears of those who had heard it said better on the stage, yet with a reproving passion adequate to the case.
But Alston asked no further questions. Madame Beattie went amicably on.
"Mr. Choate, this matter of the necklace is a family affair. Why don't you run away and let Jeffrey and his wife—and me, you know—let us settle it?"
Alston, dismissed, forgot he had been summoned and that Esther might be still depending on him. He turned about to the door, but she recalled him.
"Don't go," she said. The words were all in one breath. "Don't go far. I am afraid."
He hesitated, and Jeffrey said equably but still with a grim amusement:
"I think you'd better go."
So he went out of the room and Esther was left between her two inquisitors.