She was in the arena of the savage claws, flung there by the man who of all others should have protected her from them.

And what had she done to deserve it?
She listened to the advocate pleading her case; she primed him to admit the charges, to say the worst, in contempt of legal prudence, and thereby expose her transparent honesty.

The very things awakening a mad suspicion proved her innocence.

But was she this utterly simple person?
Oh, no! She was the Diana of the pride in her power of fencing with evil--by no means of the order of those ninny young women who realize the popular conception of the purely innocent.

She had fenced and kept her guard.