I touch a dividend of my superior
knowledge. Some are dishonest,' and here he held up the candle, so that
the light fell strongly on his visitor, 'and in that case,' he
continued, 'I profit by my virtue.'

"Markheim had but just entered from the daylight streets, and his eyes
had not grown familiar with the mingled shine and darkness of the shop.
At these pointed words, and before the near presence of the flame, he
blinked painfully and looked aside."

A little farther on:

"The dealer once more chuckled; and then, changing to his usual business
voice, though still with a note of irony, 'You can give, as usual, a
clear account of how you came into the possession of the object?' he
continued. 'Still your uncle's cabinet? A remarkable collector, sir!'

"And the little pale, round-shouldered dealer stood almost on tiptoe,
looking over the top of his gold spectacles, and nodding his head with
every mark of disbelief. Markheim returned his gaze with one of infinite
pity, and a touch of horror."

Note how strongly and withal how naturally the whole of this, and
particularly the last sentence, suggests that Markheim has come into
the shop to do murder. The story is keyed to tragedy at once, its reader
with it. His mind is prepared in advance, that the significant event,
when it is related, may be accepted without question.

As stated, this matter of keying the story and its reader to the pitch
of the main situation or climax is not precisely the matter of
atmosphere, but it has close affiliations therewith. It is even more
important to the writer of fiction. Any atmospheric value in a story
will be brought out by telling it justly as a course of events involving
real people in a definite environment, and preparation of a reader for
the main situation of a story is a part of just and adequate narration.
The writer's hints of the character of what is to come must be unforced
and natural, but they must be effective.

It is obvious, of course, that the more tense or strange the main
situation of a story, the greater the necessity that a reader be
prepared for it. If the main situation consists in commonplace
characters doing some commonplace thing, a reader will accept the
spectacle without artificial preparation, but if the main situation is
highly dramatic, the normally placid course of a reader's thought and
feeling must be agitated and stimulated in advance, or he will not rise
with the climax. In other words, the fic