his ermine should have even a shade cast on its
fairness was most repugnant to him. Now Nan Archdale was not as careful
in this matter of keeping her ermine unspoiled and delicately white as
she ought to have been, and this was the stranger inasmuch as even
Coxeter realized that there was about his friend a Una-like quality
which made her unafraid, because unsuspecting, of evil.

Another of the cardinal points of Coxeter's carefully thought-out
philosophy of life was that in this world no woman can touch pitch
without being defiled. And yet on one occasion, at least, the woman who
now sat opposite to him had proved the falsity of this view. Nan
Archdale, apparently indifferent to the opinion of those who wished her
well, had allowed herself to be closely associated with one of those
unfortunate members of her own sex who, at certain intervals in the
history of the civilized world, become heroines of a drama of which each
act takes place in the Law Courts. Of these dramas every whispered word,
every piece of "business"--to pursue the analogy to its logical end--is
overheard and visualized not by thousands but by millions,--in fact by
all those of an age to read a newspaper.

Had the woman in the case been Mrs. Archdale's sister, Coxeter with a
groan would have admitted that she owed her a duty, though a duty which
he would fain have had her shirk or rather delegate to another. But this
woman was no sister, not even a friend, simply an old acquaintance
known to Nan, 'tis true, over many years. Nan had done what she had
done, had taken her in and sheltered her, going to the Court with her
every day, simply because there seemed absolutely no one else willing to
do it.

When he had first heard of what Mrs. Archdale was undertaking to do,
Coxeter had been so dismayed that he had felt called upon to expostulate
with her.

Very few words had passed between them. "Is it possible," he had asked,
"that you think her innocent? That you believe her own story?"

To this Mrs. Archdale had answered with some distress, "I don't know, I
haven't thought about it---- As she says she is--I hope she is. If she's
not, I'd rather not know it."

It had been a confused utterance, and somehow she had made him feel
sorry that he had said anything. Afterwards, to his surprise and
unwilling relief, he discovered that Mrs. Archdale had not suffered in
reputation as he had expected her to do. But it made him feel, more than
ever, that she neede