James Matthew Barrie

Dear Brutus James Matthew Barrie

The scene is a darkened room, which the curtain reveals so stealthilythat if there was a mouse on the stage it is there still. Our object is tocatch our two chief characters unawares; they are Darkness and Light. The room is so obscure as to be invisible, but at the back of theobscurity are French windows, through which is seen Lob's gardenbathed in moon-shine. The Darkness and Light, which this room andgarden represent, are very still, but we should feel that it is only thepause in which old enemies regard each other before they come to thegrip. The moonshine stealing about among the flowers, to give themtheir last instructions, has left a smile upon them, but it is a smile witha menace in it for the dwellers in darkness. What we expect to see nextis the moonshine slowly pushing the windows open, so that it maywhisper to a confederate in the house, whose name is Lob. But thoughwe may be sure that this was about to happen it does not happen; astir among the dwellers in darkness prevents it. These unsuspecting ones are in the dining-room, and as acommunicating door opens we hear them at play. Several tenebriousshades appear in the lighted doorway and hesitate on the two stepsthat lead down into the unlit room. The fanciful among us mayconceive a rustle at the same moment among the flowers. Theengagement has begun, though not in the way we had intended.