e tremendously
telling. I wouldn't have a word to give away his character, his nature,
except the words of his own mouth, but I would have them do it so
effectually that when he gets through the audience will be fairly 'onto
him,' don't you know."

"Magnificent!" said the actor, pouring himself some more cocoa.

Maxwell continued: "In the third act--for I see that I shall have to
make it the third now--the scene will be in Haxard's library, after he
gets home from the complimentary dinner, at midnight, and he finds a man
waiting for him there--a man that the butler tells him has called
several times, and was so anxious to see him that Mrs. Haxard has given
orders to let him wait. Oh, I ought to go back a little, and explain--"

"Yes, do!" The actor stirred his cocoa with mounting interest. "Yes,
don't leave anything out."

"I merely meant to say that in the talk in the scene, or the act, before
the dinner--I shall have two acts, but with no wait between them; just
let down the curtain and raise it again--it will come out that Haxard is
not a Bostonian by birth, but has come here since the war from the
Southwest, where he went, from Maine, to grow up with the country, and
is understood to have been a sort of quiescent Union man there; it's
thought to be rather a fine thing the way he's taken on Boston, and
shown 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 leav