Armitage pondered a moment before he answered. Then he slowly spoke:

"Chester has lived a lonely and an unhappy life. His first experience
after graduation was that wretched affair of which you have told me. Of
course I knew much of the particulars before, but not all. I respect
Chester as a soldier and a gentleman, and I like him and trust him as a
friend; but, Colonel Maynard, in a matter of such vital importance as
this, and one of such delicacy, I distrust, not his motives, but his
judgment. All his life, practically, he has been brooding over the
sorrow that came to him when your trouble came to you, and his mind is
grooved: he believes he sees mystery and intrigue in matters that others
might explain in an instant."

"But think of all the array of evidence he has."

"Enough, and more than enough, I admit, to warrant everything he has
thought or said of the man; but--"

"He simply puts it this way. If he be guilty, can she be less? Is it
possible, Armitage, that you are unconvinced?"

"Certainly I am unconvinced. The matter has not yet been sifted. As I
understand it, you have forbidden his confronting Jerrold with the
proofs of his rascality until I get there. Admitting the evidence of the
ladder, the picture, and the form at the window,--ay, the letter,
too,--I am yet to be convinced of one thing. You must remember that his
judgment is biassed by his early experiences. He fancies, that no woman
is proof against such fascinations as Jerrold's."

"And your belief?"

"Is that some women--_many_ women--are utterly above such a
possibility."

Old Maynard wrung his comrade's hand. "You make me hope in spite of
myself,--my past experiences,--my very senses, Armitage. I have leaned
on you so many years that I missed you sorely when this trial came. If
you had been there, things might not have taken this shape. He looks
upon Chester--and it's one thing Chester hasn't forgiven in him--as a
meddling old granny; you remember the time he so spoke of him last year;
but he holds you in respect, or is afraid of you,--which in a man of his
calibre is about the same thing. It may not be too late for you to act.
Then when he is disposed of once and for all, I can know what must be
done--where she is concerned."

"And under no circumstances can you question Mrs. Maynard?"

"No! no! If she suspected anything of this it would kill her. In any
event, she must have no suspicion of it _now_."

"But does she not ask? Has