_Initial Incident_: Miss Haviland invites Hurrell Oaks to Newfair.
_Steps toward the Dramatic Climax_: It appears that the great man can
stop only for an hour or so. To receive him worthily, Miss Haviland
decorates her apartment in borrowed and elegant trappings; she
invites a select few to meet him. George Norton, who is devoted to
Miss Haviland, is not included.
_Dramatic Climax_: Hurrell Oaks arrives earlier than he is expected,
while Miss Haviland is in her bath-tub, and since there is nobody to
receive him he goes away.
_Steps toward the Climax of Action_: Miss Haviland rushes out to
detain him as the possibility occurs to her that his knock may have
heralded the famous guest. He is gone. She betrays to one of her
students her bitter disappointment.
_Climax of Action_: As the guests arrive she tells them that Hurrell
Oaks could not wait, though he and she have spent an “immemorial”
hour together.
_Dénouement_: Two days afterward she announces her engagement to
George Norton.
PRESENTATION. The story is recounted ten years later, after a formal
dinner, by the student whom Miss Haviland had helplessly, impulsively,
taken into her half-confidence. Her auditor is the narrator, presumably
Mr. Johnson, himself. The related story is exceptionally well told
with regard to the assumed narrator; she betrays just enough of the
school-girl character and manner to enliven the drama of middle age.
From a stylistic point of view, the narrative testifies to the author’s
craftmanship; for it is almost as if told by a young woman.
CHARACTERIZATION. Mary Haviland was interesting to the girl narrator
because of her native ability, determination, and her acquired
connoisseurship. Harmonizing her fundamental power with her culture,
hitting off little discrepancies and exaggerations that the reader
might see her whole--these demanded a highly conscious technique.
Further, to regard her half-seriously, half-lightly, yet in the end
to demand the reader’s sympathy and admiration for her, required
nothing short of Meredithian genius. Finally, the bubble of fun blown
out at the last: “She was no doubt _in the tub_,” etc., indicates an
irresponsible humor which makes play of the whole situation.