"Yes, you could do that," he assented, with pleasure in her notion; "and that would be better. I suppose that is what would be aimed at in a description of the scene, which would be tiresome if it didn't give the feeling of the spectator." "And Godolphin would say that if you let the carpenter have something to do he would give the scene itself, and you could have the effect of it at first hand." Maxwell laughed. "I wonder how much they believe in those contrivances of the carpenter themselves. They have really so little to do with the dramatic intention; but they have been multiplied so since the stage began to make the plays that the actors are always wanting them in. I believe the time will come when the dramatist will avoid the occasion or the pretext for them." "That will be after Godolphin's time," said Mrs. Maxwell. "Well, I don't know," returned Maxwell. "If Godolphin should happen to imagine doing without them he would go all lengths." "Or if you imagined it and let him suppose he had. He never imagines anything of himself." "No, he doesn't. And yet how perfectly he grasps the notion of the thing when it is done! It is very different from literature, acting is. And yet literature is only the representation of life." "Well, acting is the representation of life at second-hand, then, and it ought to be willing to subordinate itself. What I can't bear in Godolphin is his setting himself up to be your artistic equal. He is no more an artist than the canvas is that the artist paints a picture on." Maxwell laughed. "Don't tell him so; he won't like it." "I will tell him so some day, whether he likes it or not." "No, you mustn't; for it isn't true. He's just as much an artist in his way as I am in mine, and, so far as the public is concerned, he has given more proofs." "Oh, _his_ public!" "It won't do to despise any public, even the theatre-going public." Maxwell added the last words with a faint sigh. "It's always second-rate," said his wife, passionately. "Third-rate, fourth-rate! Godolphin was quite right about that. I wish you were writing a novel, Brice, instead of a play. Then you would be really addressing refined people." "It kills me to have you say that, Louise." "Well, I won't. But don't you see, then, that you must stand up for art all the more unflinchingly if you intend to write plays that will refine the theatre-going public, or create a new one? That is why I can't endure to have you even seem to give way to Godolphin."