MissT - // /If PA was sure he did 'nothing wrong' - why did he not go to court and face his accuser, instead of paying her off to avoid it./
To avoid any more publicity and because he could afford it. As anyone else would do in that position! //
Not 'anyone' - just one who was pretty sure he would lose his case in court.
And one who considered that the loss of a large sum of money which he did not have to find, and the lifelong loss of what remained of a seriously damaged reputation, was worth more than standing up in court and proving he had not done anything wrong.
Going to court and clearing his name, sure that right, legal and moral, were on his side, and that he could hold his head high and emerge with his reputation unstained - THAT is what 'anyone', with a shred of moral fibre and character, would actually do.