ging of the shoulders, a foisting of the blame on to
fate. It may be that the majority of the incidents have been forced upon
us, that we have not been free agents in the matter, but if we must of
honesty say,--Here or there was the mistake which led to them, and I made
that mistake of my own free will,--we cannot turn to philosophy regarding
fate for our comfort.

To Antony's mind he had made a big mistake. Fate had been responsible for
his receipt of that letter, it had had nothing to do with himself; he
might even consider that, having received it, fate was largely
responsible for his journey to England and his meeting with the Duchessa,
but he could not possibly accuse fate of his acceptance of those mad
conditions attached to the will. He had been an entirely free agent so
far as they were concerned; they had been put before him for him to
accept or reject them as he chose, and he had accepted them. It had been
a huge blunder on his part, and one for which he alone had been
responsible.

Of course he might quite justly declare that he could not possibly have
foreseen all the other moves fate had up her sleeve; but then no living
being could have foreseen them. Fate never does show her subsequent
moves. She puts decisions before us in such a way, that she leaves us to
imagine we can shape our succeeding actions to our own mind and according
to the decision made. She leaves us to imagine it is simply a question
whether we will reach our goal by a road bearing slightly to the right or
to the left, by a road which may take a long time to traverse and be a
fairly smooth road, or a road which will take a short time to traverse
and be a rough one. Or, even, as in Antony's case, she will leave us to
imagine there is one route and one route only by which we may reach our
goal. And then, whatever our choice, she may suddenly plant a huge
barrier across the path, labelled,--No thoroughfare to your goal in this
direction.

Sometimes it is possible to defy fate, retrace our steps, and start anew
towards the goal. Occasionally we will find that we have burnt our
bridges behind us; we are up against an obstacle, and there we are bound
to remain helpless. And here fate appears at her worst trickery.

And even supposing we are minded to call it not fate, but Providence, who
does these things, it will be of remarkably little comfort to us when we
are aware of our own blunders in the background.

A hundred times Antony reviewed