Anne got on her feet and held out a hand to her.
"Come," she said. "Let's go upstairs."
Esther shrank all over her body and gave a glance at Jeff. It was a cruel glance, full of a definite repudiation.
"No, no," she said again, in a voice where fear was intentionally dominant.
It stung him to a miserable sorrow for her and a hurt pride of his own.
"For God's sake, no!" he said. "You're going to be by yourself, poor child! Run away with Anne."
So Esther rose unwillingly, and Anne took her up to the spacious chamber where firelight was dancing on the wall and Lydia had completed all sorts of hospitable offices. Lydia was there still, shrinking shyly into the background, as having no means of communication with an Esther to whom she had been hostile. But Esther turned them both out firmly, if with courtesy.
"Please go," she said to Anne. "Please let me be."
This seemed to Anne quite natural. She knew she herself, if she were troubled, could get over it best alone.
"Mayn't I come back?" she asked. "When you're in bed?"