[3]
In the works of Sir Arthur Pinero I recall two cases in which the lack
of a finger-post impairs the desired effect: slightly, in the one
instance, in the other, very considerably. The third act of that
delightful comedy _The Princess and the Butterfly_ contains no
sufficient indication of Fay Zuliani's jealousy of the friendship
between Sir George Lamorant and the Princess Pannonia. We are rather at
a loss to account for the coldness of her attitude to the Princess, and
her perverse naughtiness in going off to the Opera Ball. This renders
the end of the act practically ineffective. We so little foresee what is
to come of Fay's midnight escapade, that we take no particular interest
in it, and are rather disconcerted by the care with which it is led up
to, and the prominence assigned to it. This, however, is a trifling
fault. Far different is the case in the last act of _The Benefit of the
Doubt_, which goes near to ruining what is otherwise a very fine play.
The defect, indeed, is not purely technical: on looking into it we find
that the author is not in fact working towards an ending which can be
called either inevitable or conspicuously desirable.
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