Mr. J.M. Barrie (to take a
recent instance) sedulously concealed, throughout the greater part of
_Little Mary_, what was meant by that ever-recurring expression, and
probably relied to some extent on an effect of amused surprise when the
disclosure was made. On the first night, the effect came off happily
enough; but on subsequent nights, there would rarely be a score of
people in the house who did not know the secret. The great majority
might know nothing else about the play, but that they knew. Similarly,
in the case of any mechanical _truc_, as the French call it, or feat of
theatrical sleight-of-hand, it is futile to trust to its taking unawares
any audience after the first. Nine-tenths of all subsequent audiences
are sure to be on the look-out for it, and to know, or think they know,
"how it's done."[4] These are the things which theatrical gossip,
printed and oral, most industriously disseminates. The fine details of a
plot are much less easily conveyed and less likely to be remembered.
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