t perhaps she was no readier to surrender
herself to them than to Octon himself. She might answer that in her own
soul she would still be free, though her freedom were bought at a great
price, though in the eyes of the world she had forfeited her right to
it.

My memory harked back to a conversation which I had once held with
Alison. A mind that thought for itself in worldly matters, I had
suggested to him, would very likely think for itself in moral or
religious ones, too--and such thought was apt to issue in suspending
general obligations in a man's own case. I had hazarded the opinion that
Miss Driver would be capable of suspending a general obligation in her
own case--as the result of careful thought about it--as an exercise of
power, to repeat the phrase I had used. If that were her disposition
now--if what I had foreshadowed as a possibility had become a
fact--would Octon save her from the results of it? He was the last man
in the world to do that. Skeptic in mind and rebel in temper, he would
not insist on obedience to obligations in whose sanction he did not
believe, nor be urgent in counseling outward conformity with conventions
which he disliked and took a positive pleasure in scorning. On the other
hand, he would not be swayed by a vulgar self-interest; he would be too
proud to seek to bind her to him that he might thus bind her money also.
If she said "I will remain free," he would acquiesce and might even
applaud. If she said "I will be free and yet with you," it was not
likely that he would offer any strong opposition.

Meanwhile she stood where people who arrogate to themselves the liberty
of defying the law cannot reasonably complain of standing--in the dock.
That is the fair cost of the freedom they claim. Jenny was arraigned at
the bar of the public opinion of her neighbors; unless she could and
would clear herself of suspicion, there was not much doubt how the
verdict would go. The first overt step in the proceedings took place
under my own eyes.

Cartmell had apprised Bindlecombe of Jenny's wish that the work of the
Institute should proceed in her absence, and of her financial
arrangements to this end. Bindlecombe, as Chairman, convened a meeting
of the Committee. Cartmell was out of town that day and did not attend,
but I went to represent Jenny's side of the affair. Fillingford and
Alison were talking together in low voices when I came in. Fillingford
greeted me with his usual reserved courtesy,