What would he think of her if she were only to threaten the deed, and then not perform it?
And would she allow him to go unpunished?
Should he triumph, as he would do if she were now to return to the house which she had told him she had left?
She clasped her hands together tightly, and pressed them first to her bosom and then to her brow, and then again she returned to the niche from which the fall into the river must be made.

Yes, it was very easy.

The plunge might be taken at any moment.

Eternity was before her, and of life there remained to her but the few moments in which she might cling there and think of what was coming.

Surely she need not begrudge herself a minute or two more of life.
She was very cold, so cold that she pressed herself against the stone in order that she might save herself from the wind that whistled round her.