It was entirely possible that he was endeavoring to shield her name from the befouling suspicion of having yielded to Whitmore, a suspicion which the general public would be quick to convert into an unalterable belief, once it learned that she had transferred her love from her husband to the slain merchant.

Should the murderer be discovered and brought to trial the dissensions in the Collins household would be paraded unsparingly in the public press.

Innocent as the relations between Whitmore and Mrs.Collins were, they would take on a guilty aspect in the eyes of a world that is ever ready to discern its own debasing impulses reflected in the conduct of one who has been regarded hitherto as unstained.
Reviewing all the circumstances of the case, Britz concluded that Beard's statement was not to be accepted as an intimation of Mrs.
Collins's guilt.

For, had he not accused Collins in even stronger terms in the very presence of his murdered employer?
It was not to be forgotten, too, that a favorite dodge of guilty persons is to adopt the pose of a martyr.

And, in lieu of an adequate defense, to create a favorable doubt by insinuating that they are accepting punishment in order to shield a woman.