THE SERPENT IN LITERATURE 207 



in harmony with the conception of Elsie, of a being 

 in whom the human and serpentine natures were 

 indissolubly joined ; and no accident, not assuredly 

 that " dull ache of passion," could have killed the 

 one without destroying the other. 



The author was himself conscious of the in- 

 adequacy of the reason he gave for the change 

 and deliverance. He no doubt asked himself the 

 following question : " Will the reader believe that 

 a fit of dumb passion, however intense, was sufficient 

 to cause one of Elsie's splendid physique and 

 vitality to droop and wither into the grave like 

 any frail consumptive schoolgirl who loves and 

 whose love is not requited ? " He recognises and 

 is led to apologise for its weakness ; and, finally, 

 still unsatisfied, advances an alternative theory, 

 which is subtle and physiological a sop thrown to 

 those among his readers who, unlike the proverbial 

 ass engaged in chewing hay, meditate on what they 

 are taking in. The alternative theory is, that an 

 animal's life is of short duration compared with 

 man's ; that the serpent in Elsie, having arrived at 

 the end of its natural term, died out of the human 

 life with which it had been intervolved, leaving her 

 still in the flower of youth and wholly human ; 

 but that this decay and death in her affected her 

 with so great a shock that her own death followed 

 immediately on her deliverance. 



If the first explanation was weak the second will 

 not bear looking at. Some animals have compara- 

 tively short lives, as, for instance, the earthworm, 



