them the result of the St. Leger, involving for some of them
opulence--to the extent, perhaps, of a L5 note--and for others ruin.[3]

The difficulty of deciding that any one form of scene is predestined by
the laws of dramatic effect is illustrated in Tolstoy's grisly drama,
_The Power of Darkness_. The scene in which Nikita kills Akoulina's
child was felt to be too horrible for representation; whereupon the
author wrote an alternative scene between Mitritch and Anna, which
passes simultaneously with the murder scene, in an adjoining room. The
two scenes fulfil exactly the same function in the economy of the play;
it can be acted with either of them, it might be acted with both; and it
is impossible to say which produces the intenser or more "specifically
dramatic effect."

The fact remains, however, that there is almost always a dramatic and
undramatic, a more dramatic and a less dramatic, way of doing a thing;
and an author who allows us to foresee and expect a dramatic way of
attaining a given end, and then chooses an undramatic or less dramatic
way, is guilty of having missed the obligatory scene. For a general
discussion of what we mean by the terms "dramatic" and "undramatic" the
reader may refer back to Chapter III. Here I need only give one or two
particular illustrations.

It will be remembered that one of the _scenes a faire_ which M. Sarcey
foresaw in _Les Fourchambault_ was the encounter between the two
brothers; the illegitimate Bernard and the legitimate Leopold. It would
have been quite possible, and quite natural, to let the action of the
play work itself out without any such encounter; or to let the encounter
take place behind the scenes; but this would have been a patent ignoring
of dramatic possibilities, and M. Sarcey would have had ample reason to
pour the vials of his wrath on Augier's head. He was right, however, in
his confidence that Augier would not fail to "make" the scene. And how
did he "make" it? The one thing inevitable about it was that the truth
should be revealed to Leopold; but there were a dozen different ways in
which that might have been effected. Perhaps, in real life, Bernard
would have said something to this effect: "Young man, you are making
questionable advances to a lady in whom I am interested. I beg that you
will cease to persecute her; and if you ask by what right I do so, I
reply that I am in fact your elder brother, that I have saved our father
from ruin, that I am henc