we hoped. It was that which made it so much more exciting than any
other game.

Our hopes were realized to the following extent:

Wurzel-Flummery was produced by Mr. Dion Boucicault at the New
Theatre in April, 1917. It was originally written in three acts, in
which form it was shown to one or two managers. At the beginning of
1917 I was offered the chance of production in a triple bill if I
cut it down into a two-act play. To cut even a line is painful, but
to cut thirty pages of one's first comedy, slaughtering whole
characters on the way, has at least a certain morbid fascination.
It appeared, therefore, in two acts; and one kindly critic
embarrassed us by saying that a lesser artist would have written it
in three acts, and most of the other critics annoyed us by saying
that a greater artist would have written it in one act. However, I
amused myself some months later by slaying another character--the
office-boy, no less--thereby getting it down to one act, and was
surprised to find that the one-act version was, after all, the
best... At least I think it is. ... At any rate, that is the
version I am printing here; but, as can be imagined, I am rather
tired of the whole business by now, and I am beginning to wonder if
anyone ever did take the name of Wurzel-Flummery at all. Probably
the whole thing is an invention.

The Lucky One was doomed from the start with a name like that. And
the girl marries the wrong man. I see no hope of its being
produced. But if any critic wishes to endear himself to me (though
I don't see why he should) he will agree with me that it is the
best play of the five.