question: "What is standing at the door?" By this means, half your work
of holding the attention is accomplished. It is not necessary for me to
enter into the psychological reason of this, but I strongly recommend
those who are interested in the question to read the chapter in Ribot's
work on this subject, "Essai sur L'Imagination Creatrice," as well as
Mr. Keatinge's work on "Suggestion."

I would advise all teachers to revise their stories with a view to
introducing the judicious pause, and to vary its use according to the
age, the number, and, above all, the mood of the audience. Experience
alone can insure success in this matter. It has taken me many years
to realize the importance of this artifice.

Among other means for holding the attention of the audience and
helping to bring out the points of the story is the use of gesture. I
consider, however, that it must be a sparing use, and not of a broad
or definite character. We shall never improve on the advice given by
Hamlet to the actors on this subject: "See that ye o'erstep not the
modesty of Nature."

And yet, perhaps it is not necessary to warn story-tellers against
abuse of gesture. It is more helpful to encourage them in the use of
it, especially in Anglo-Saxon countries, where we are fearful of
expressing ourselves in this way, and when we do the gesture often
lacks subtlety. The Anglo-Saxon, when he does move at all, moves in
solid blocks--a whole arm, a whole leg, the whole body but if one
watches a Frenchman or an Italian in conversation, one suddenly
realizes how varied and subtle are the things which can be suggested
by the mere turn of the wrist or the movement of a finger. The power
of the hand has been so wonderfully summed up in a passage from