"
"No point of view can alter facts," said the Major, "supposing they are
facts, which of course they're not."
"Yes, it can," said Meldon. "To the legal mind a fact ceases to be a
fact the moment a properly qualified court has decided the other way.
The judge may be, in this particular case he is, as we know, absolutely
convinced that his niece is a murderess. But a jury says she isn't,
and so from a legal point of view she's a perfectly innocent and
upright woman. The judge can't hang her. He can't even warn her not
to do it again. He is bound, whatever his private feelings and
convictions are, to accept the jury's verdict at its face value, and to
treat his niece exactly as he did before all the unpleasantness arose."
"He needn't kiss her," said the Major.
"If he's a consistently just man and was on what we may call kissing
terms with her before," said Meldon, "he'll of course kiss her again
afterwards. He can't do anything else. In the eye of the law--that's
what I mean by the legal standpoint--she's an innocent woman. Now the
judge's whole position in society and even his income depends on his
keeping up the theory that the law is infallible.
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