o convey a content to his
intellect.

=Style an Important Aid to Fiction.=--Since narrative is the natural
mood of fiction, and since description is more often introduced than
either argument or exposition, it follows that the writer of fiction
must always reckon with the factor of style. It is true that stories
may be written without style; it is even true that many of the
greatest stories have been devoid of this indefinable quality: but it
is not therefore logical to argue that the factor of style may be
neglected. How much it may be made to contribute to the attainment of
the aim of fiction will be recognized instinctively upon examination
of any wonderfully written passage. Let us consider, for example, the
following paragraphs from "Markheim." After Markheim has killed the
dealer, and gone upstairs to ransack the belongings of the murdered
man, he suffers an interval of quietude amid alarms.--

"With the tail of his eye he saw the door--even glanced at it from
time to time directly, like a besieged commander pleased to verify the
good estate of his defenses. But in truth he was at peace. The rain
falling in the street sounded natural and pleasant. Presently, on the
other side, the notes of a piano were wakened to the music of a hymn,
and the voices of many children took up the air and words. How
stately, how comfortable was the melody! How fresh the youthful
voices! Markheim gave ear to it smilingly, as he sorted out the keys;
and his mind was thronged with answerable ideas and images;
church-going children and the pealing of the high organ; children
afield, bathers by the brookside, ramblers on the brambly common,
kite-fliers in the windy and cloud-navigated sky; and then, at another
cadence of the hymn, back again to church, and the somnolence of
summer Sundays, and the high genteel voice of the parson (which he
smiled a little to recall) and the painted Jacobean tombs, and the dim
lettering of the Ten Commandments in the chancel.

"And as he sat thus, at once busy and absent, he was startled to his
feet. A flash of ice, a flash of fire, a bursting gush of blood, went
over him, and then he stood transfixed and thrilling. A step mounted
the stair slowly and steadily, and presently a hand was laid upon the
knob, and the lock clicked, and the door opened."

Anybody who has ears to hear will immediately appreciate how much the
effect of this passage is enhanced by the masterly employment of every
phase of style