This, as Signor Malipizzo observed with his usual legal acumen, might pass for an explanation but nevermore for an excuse.  How much longer, he continued, with a fine Ciceronian gesture of eloquent indignation—­how much longer would the foreign colony on Nepenthe endure the presence in their midst of such a disgrace to womanhood?

Thus spake the judge, well aware of what was expected from a man in his position.  In his heart he desired nothing less than her departure; he was charmed with her disturbing influence; he hoped she would live a hundred years on the island.  In the first place he received occasional gifts in kind from various grocers and wine-merchants who enriched themselves by supplying her at preposterous prices with intoxicants, and who thought by these subtle tactics to retain him as an ally in their cause.  Secondly and chiefly, every new scandal of this nature gave him a fresh opportunity of consigning her, temporarily, to the lock-up.  Only temporarily.  Because Mr. Keith would be sure to bail her out again in the morning, which meant another fifty francs in his pocket.

This is exactly what had just taken place.  Mr. Keith had bailed her out, for the thirty-fourth time.  She was at liberty once more, sobering down.

Both the Duchess and Madame Steynlin pitied her, as only one woman can pity another.  Often the prayed to their respective Gods, Lutheran and High Church, that she might be led to see the error of her ways or, failing that, removed by some happy accident from the island or, failing that, run over by a passing vehicle and injured—­injured not dangerously, but merely to such an extent as to necessitate her permanent seclusion from society.  Other careless folk were maimed by the furious driving of the Nepentheans; it was a common form of accident.  Miss Wilberforce—­the eye-sore, the scandal of her sex—­remained intact.  Some impish deity seemed to guide her wayward footsteps.

Had she been a person of low extraction there would have been no difficulty in dealing with her.  But she was so obviously a lady—­she had such obviously rich and influential connections in England!  These people, however glad to have her out of the way, might object if violent measures were taken by persons who, after all, had no right to interfere in her affairs.  And the situation was rendered none the less complex by the attitude of Miss Wilberforce herself.  She was a Tartar.  She felt that all men’s hands were against her.  She used her tongue to good purpose and, at a pinch, her teeth and claws.  The policemen of Nepenthe could bear witness to that fact.  Drunk, she had a perfectly blistering flow of invective at command.  Sober, she was apt to indulge in a dignified bestiality of logic that cut like a knife.  It was only in the intermediate stage that she was affable and human.  But to catch her in that intermediate stage was extremely difficult.  It was of such very brief duration.