A more strictly apposite
example may be found in Sir Arthur Pinero's play, _His House in Order_.
Here the action undoubtedly culminates in the great scene between Nina
and Hilary Jesson in the third act; yet we await with eager anticipation
the discomfiture of the Ridgeley family; and when we realize that it is
to be brought about by the disclosure to Filmer of Annabel's secret, the
manifest rightness of the proceeding gives us a little shock of
pleasure. Mr. Somerset Maugham, again, in the last act of _Grace_,
employs an ingenious device to keep the tension at a high pitch. The
matter of the act consists mainly of a debate as to whether Grace Insole
ought, or ought not, to make a certain painful avowal to her husband. As
the negative opinion was to carry the day, Mr. Maugham saw that there
was grave danger that the final scene might appear an almost ludicrous
anticlimax. To obviate this, he made Grace, at the beginning of the act,
write a letter of confession, and address it to Claude; so that all
through the discussion we had at the back of our mind the question "Will
the letter reach his hands? Will the sword of Damocles fall?" This may
seem like a leaf from the book of Sardou; but in reality it was a
perfectly natural and justified expedient.
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