If you were wrong, Mr. van Koppen, where would our
poets and novelists be?"
"Where are they?" queried the American.
"How shall that come out of a man," continued Mr. Heard, "which was
never in him? How shall he generate a harmonious atmosphere if he be
disharmonious himself? It is all a question of plausibility, of
verisimi--simili--"
"I never heard a more profound remark, Koppen, no, nor a more subtle
one; not even from you. Nor yet from you, Heard. And I can tell you
something to the point. I was talking this afternoon with a gentleman
about the stage. I said it made me said to see flesh-and-blood people
pretending to be kings and queens. Because it cannot be done. No
sensible person can bring himself to believe it. But when you watch
some of these local marionette theatres the illusion is complete. Why
is a poppy show more convincing than the COMEDIE FRANCAISE? Because it
is still further removed from reality. There is so much make-belief
that you cease to struggle. You succumb without an effort.
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