Page:Men of Letters, Scott, 1916.djvu/152

126 COMMONSENSE OF MR. ARNOLD BENNETT suppose you had nothing to do it with but a common gas-jet, five minutes, and the contents of your pockets, how would you set about that l Read The Regent^ page 55. Is it a valet you want to prove a hero to? See The Regent^ page 81. How to Deal with Domineering Lawyers— T/ie Regent, page 179. How to Deal with Dog-bite — The Regent, page 173. How to Cure Nettle-rash — no, that is suppressed. How to Deal with Dukes — The Regent, page 175. How to Lay Corner-stones in an Absolutely Unprecedented Way, How to Extricate Yourself from an Entangle- ment with a Radiant Actress-Heiress with the Minimum of Trouble, Tears, and Treachery, How to Cure Dyspepsia, How to Take a Theatre Call — how, in fact, to Live on Twenty-four Hours a Day and successfully Work the Human Machine — see The Regent, pages 1-319. And all the prescriptions are genuine. Not a single solution is faked. The methods are per- fectly sound. These are not the prearranged demon- strations of your Sherlock Holmes type of hero, mar- vellously retracing the steps his author has just taken. Every problem comes as fresh to the writer as to the reader ; its elements are all shown in advance, and then they are honestly adhered to ; the success depends entirely on the Card's native shrewdness — never on the exercise of the divine right of authorship. It is a series of displays of pure, unaided commonsense. And the reason of this genuineness is simply that Denry's great gift is actually a bit of Mr. Bennett showing through. The picture has been given veri- similitude by the excellent device of the artist fitting his own face into a hole in the canvas from behind, above the painted body. That dodge alone is pure Denry and enough to betray the identity : none but a man with more gumption than most writers are blest with would have seen how to turn his own life to such account. The Regent is almost a roman a clef, so