It was after all a sort of convention to accept acquittal as the proof of innocence.
But at the back of his mind from first to last there was an immense fear of the figure which he himself would cut if he refused his consent to the marriage on any ground except that of Stella Ballantyne's guilt.

For Stella herself, the woman, he had no kindness to spare that morning.
Yesterday he had overflowed with it.

For yesterday she had been one more proof to the world how high he soared above it.
"Since Pettifer's in doubt," he said to himself, "there must be some flaw in this trial which I overlooked in the heat of my sympathy"; and to discover that flaw he read again every printed detail of it from the morning when Stella first appeared before the stipendiary magistrate to that other morning a month later when the verdict was given.

And he found no flaw.

Stella's acquittal was inevitable on the evidence.