THE LADY OR THE SALMON? in 



malignity cannot suspect of being voluntary. 

 There are plenty of fish in the water ; if I hook- 

 one in " The Trows," I shall let myself go whither 

 the current takes me. Life has for weeks been 

 odious to me ; for what is life without honour, with- 

 out love, and coupled with shame and remorse ? 

 Repentance I cannot call the emotion which 

 gnaws me at the heart, for in similar circumstances 

 (unlikely as these are to occur) I feel that I 

 would do the same thing again. 



' Are we but automata, worked by springs, 

 moved by the stronger impulse, and unable to 

 choose for ourselves which impulse that shall be ? 

 Even now, in decreeing my own destruction, do I 

 exercise free-will, or am I the sport of hereditary 

 tendencies, of mistaken views of honour, of a seem- 

 ing self-sacrifice, which, perhaps, is but selfishness 

 in disguise ? I blight my unfortunate father's old 

 age ; I destroy the last of an ancient house ; but 

 I remove from the path of Olive Dunne the 

 shadow that must rest upon the sunshine of what 

 will eventually, I trust, be a happy life, unvexed 

 by memories of one who loved her passionately. 



