Page:Men of Letters, Scott, 1916.djvu/151

COMMONSENSE OF MR. ARNOLD BENNETT 125 And there can be no doubt about it that it is this inevitability of Denry that explains why we are all bearing up so uncomplainingly beneath Miss Hilda Less ways' persistent non-appearance and receiving with such splendid good-humour Mr. Machin's attempts to entertain us in her stead. For Hilda's indisposition has a deep and dark reality : there is a special sense in which she is far less fully vitalized than the Card. For behind the latter is the whole vigour of his author's personality — not simply, as in her case, a dramatically diverted vein of it, fed by imaginative sympathy. Mr. Bennett's own genius is not only masculine, it is of the Card's particular kind ; and the result is that the latter lives with a gusto and reality that fairly plays all the other characters off the boards. Compare his capacities with even those of Edwin Clayhanger. Edwin's distinctive gift, we are told, was a dim proclivity towards draughtsmanship. Very well : we accept it ; we take the author's word ; but it is merely a statement, untested — we never see any samples of his powers. But Denry's special idiosyncrasy is simply solid mother- wit — and the book does what he is praised for while we watch. There is absolutely no deception. We are not merely assured that Denry got into a hole, and that he then turned it into a gold mine. There is the pitfall — there goes Denry into it — and there in due course authentic nuggets appear, golden ideas and precious tips which you may pick up off the page and pocket for your own private use after the performance. Suppose you wanted to design a theatre far more sensibly and satis- factorily than any other theatre in the world, how would you set about it? What practical rules would you observe ? The Regent fully explains. Suppose you longed to crush, impress, overwhelm, and generally reduce to a psychological jelly some complacent whipper-snapper of a bounding Metropolitan, and