Or, failing to do this, she might accidentally
reveal some event in her own experience which, acting as a hint
to a competent dramatist, might prove to be the making of a play.
The prosperity of his theatre was his one serious object in life.
'I may be on the trace of another "Corsican Brothers,"' he thought.
'A new piece of that sort would be ten thousand pounds in my pocket,
at least.'
With these motives (worthy of the single-hearted devotion
to dramatic business which made Francis a successful manager)
he related, without further hesitation, what his own experience
had been, and what the experience of his relatives had been,
in the haunted hotel. He even described the outbreak of superstitious
terror which had escaped Mrs. Norbury's ignorant maid.
'Sad stuff, if you look at it reasonably,' he remarked.
'But there is something dramatic in the notion of the ghostly influence
making itself felt by the relations in succession, as they one after
another enter the fatal room--until the one chosen relative comes
who will see the Unearthly Creature, and know the terrible truth.
Material for a play, Countess--first-rate material for a play!'
There he paused.
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