h she wrote. For a time no answer came.
Finally from a different address Mrs. Price replied saying that Fanny
was ill and asking that their whereabouts be a secret. In spite of the
little threat Fanny was not anxious to be subpoenaed.

But that was much later, long after Harris had told the story which
Mr. Digby declared to be very good.

This opinion, editorial and offhand though it was, was immediately and
officially indorsed. For the story had a double merit. It supplied not
merely a clue but a case. A very clear case, too. There was the
antecedent threat, the opportunity, the instrument, everything even to
the motive which was reasonable enough. The inevitable ensued.
Annandale, arrested, was held without bail.

At the news of that Sylvia shuddered. Time touched her. Her eyes
ringed themselves with sudden circles. The shuddering passed, but the
rings remained. She became whiter, harder, more resolute, divining
dimly that somewhere, somehow, there was a duty to be performed. What
the duty was to be the press disclosed. Against Annandale was public
opinion. There he was convicted instanter. At the injustice, or what
seemed to her the injustice, of that she revolted.

But Orr, whom Annandale had immediately retained, dosed her with a
platitude. "Public opinion be hanged," he said. "What is it but the
stupidity of one multiplied by the stupidity of all. _Vox populi, vox
stulti._ The majority is always cocksure and dead wrong."

In spite, though, of general stupidity there were people sufficiently
indulgent to accord Annandale the benefit of extenuating
circumstances. The reputation of Loftus, which left rather a little to
be desired; the coupling of his name with that of Annandale's wife;
the report that for his sake the latter had been preparing to leave
her husband; the further report that for the convenience of both Marie
Leroy had been shipped abroad; these things reduced the case in the
minds of the indulgent to what the French call a _crime passionnel_,
and which, as such, is psychologically and even legally defensible.

But French views are not our views. Besides, admitting their validity,
that validity was impaired by the attitude which Annandale assumed. He
omitted to admit, and thereby for the time being waived the right to
plead, the circumstances advanced in his justification. When charged
had he said, "Oh, yes, I did it, and so would you or any other man,"
there, don't you see, might have been an excu