WHAT EVERY WOMAN KNOWS

JAMES M. BARRIE



ACT I

(James Wylie is about to make a move on the dambrod, and in the
little Scotch room there is an awful silence befitting the occasion.
James with his hand poised--for if he touches a piece he has to play
it, Alick will see to that--raises his red head suddenly to read
Alick's face. His father, who is Alick, is pretending to be in a
panic lest James should make this move. James grins heartlessly, and
his fingers are about to close on the 'man' when some instinct of
self-preservation makes him peep once more. This time Alick is
caught: the unholy ecstasy on his face tells as plain as porridge
that he has been luring James to destruction. James glares; and, too
late, his opponent is a simple old father again. James mops his head,
sprawls in the manner most conducive to thought in the Wylie family,
and, protruding his underlip, settles down to a reconsideration of
the board. Alick blows out his cheeks, and a drop of water settles on
the point of his nose.

You will find them thus any Saturday night (after family worship,
which sends the servant to bed); and sometimes the pauses are so long
that in the end they forget whose move it is.

It is not the room you would be shown into if you were calling
socially on Miss Wylie. The drawing-room for you, and Miss Wylie in a