The Story of a Play | Page 3

so much local patriotism and public spirit and philanthropy, in
the way he's brought himself forward here. People don't know a great
deal about his past, but it's understood to have been very creditable. I
shall have to recast that part a little, and lengthen the delay before he
comes on, and let the guests, or the hosts--for they're giving him the
dinner--have time to talk about him, and free their minds in honor of
him behind his back, before they begin to his face."
"Never bring your principal character on at once," the actor interjected.
"No," Maxwell consented. "I see that wouldn't have done." He went on:
"Well, as soon as Haxard turns up the light in his library, the man rises
from the lounge where he has been sitting, and Haxard sees who it is.
He sees that it is a man whom he used to be in partnership with in
Texas, where they were engaged in some very shady transactions. They
get caught in one of them--I haven't decided yet just what sort of
transaction it was, and I shall have to look that point up; I'll get some
law-student to help me--and Haxard, who wasn't Haxard then, pulls out
and leaves his partner to suffer the penalty. Haxard comes North, and
after trying it in various places, he settles here, and marries, and starts
in business and prospers on, while the other fellow takes their joint

punishment in the penitentiary. By the way, it just occurs to me! I think
I'll have it that Haxard has killed a man, a man whom he has injured; he
doesn't mean to kill him, but he has to; and this fellow is knowing to
the homicide, but has been prevented from getting onto Haxard's trail
by the consequences of his own misdemeanors; that will probably be
the best way out. Of course it all has to transpire, all these facts, in the
course of the dialogue which the two men have with each other in
Haxard's library, after a good deal of fighting away from the inevitable
identification on Haxard's part. After the first few preliminary words
with the butler at the door before he goes in to find the other man--his
name is Greenshaw--"
"That's a good name, too," said the actor.
"Yes, isn't it? It has a sort of probable sound, and yet it's a made-up
name. Well, I was going to say--"
"And I'm glad you have it a homicide that Haxard is guilty of, instead
of a business crime of some sort. That sort of crime never tells with an
audience," the actor observed.
"No," said Maxwell. "Homicide is decidedly better. It's more
melodramatic, and I don't like that, but it will be more appreciable, as a
real sin, to most of the audience; we steal and cheat so much, and we
kill comparatively so little in the North. Well, I was going to say that I
shall have this whole act to consist entirely of the passage between the
two men. I shall let it begin with a kind of shiver creeping over the
spectator, when he recognizes the relation between them, and I hope I
shall be able to make it end with a shudder, for Haxard must see from
the first moment, and he must let the audience see at last, that the only
way for him to save himself from his old crime is to commit a new one.
He must kill the man who saw him kill a man."
"That's good," the actor thoughtfully murmured, as if tasting a pleasant
morsel to try its flavor. "Excellent."
Maxwell laughed for pleasure, and went on: "He arranges to meet the
man again at a certain time and place, and that is the last of Greenshaw.

He leaves the house alone; and the body of an unknown man is found
floating up and down with the tide under the Long Bridge. There are no
marks of violence; he must have fallen off the bridge in the dark, and
been drowned; it could very easily happen. Well, then comes the most
difficult part of the whole thing; I have got to connect the casualty with
Haxard in the most unmistakable way, unmistakable to the audience,
that is; and I have got to have it brought home to him in a supreme
moment of his life. I don't want to have him feel remorse for it; that
isn't the modern theory of the criminal; but I do want him to be anxious
to hide his connection with it, and to escape the consequences. I don't
know but I shall try another dinner-scene, though I am afraid it would
be a risk."
The actor said, "I don't know. It might be the very thing. The audience
likes a