I'll appear against her."
Wharton rose and addressed himself to Mrs. Earle.
"I'm sorry," he said, "but I had to do it. You might have known I could
not hush it up. I am the only man who can't hush it up. The people of
New York elected me to enforce the laws." Wharton's voice was raised to
a loud pitch. It seemed unnecessarily loud. It was almost as though he
were addressing another and more distant audience. "And," he continued,
his voice still soaring, "even if my own family suffer, even if I
suffer, even if I lose political promotion, those laws I will enforce!"
In the more conventional tone of every-day politeness, he added:
"May I speak to you outside, Mrs. Earle?"
But, as in silence that lady descended the stairs, the district attorney
seemed to have forgotten what it was he wished to say.
It was not until he had seen his chauffeur arouse himself from
apparently deep slumber and crank the car that he addressed her.
"That girl," he said, "had better go back to bed. My men are all around
this house and, until the police come, will detain her.
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