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The mere statement that a spy had been arrested on a charge of trafficking in State papers had caused a considerable sensation. The newspapers had disposed of the case in a few lines, for no evidence of any kind had been tendered, and the remand was a formal one.
Nevertheless, people discussed the affair with a solemnity befitting the occasion. The spy mania was in the air; there had recently been other arrests both in England and on the Continent, and the wildest rumors were afloat. The fact that the spy was a woman added piquancy to the charge. Some of the cheaper sensational papers professed to give details. The woman was an international spy of marvellous beauty and high intelligence. She was well born too, and at home in the atmosphere of Courts. It was easy for papers of this type to indulge in pungent particulars of this kind, for news was scarce, and anything in the nature of an appetising paragraph was welcome. One of the evening sheets went so far as to publish a photograph and tabloid biography of the spy.