"WHAT EVERY WOMAN KNOWS."
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."' Sin,—Tbougb I disagree with most of your dramatic critic's article on What Every Woman Knows in the issue of September 26th, I shall trouble you only for space enough to try to codince him of the mistaken view he has taken of Mr. Barrie's "purpose" in his last paragraph. "There are various indications," writes " Ignotus," " that the play is intended, in part at least, as a contribution to the discussion upon the relations of the sexes." Mr. Barrie, he holds, would have ne believe that the true function of woman is to delude her husband into thinking she is ignorant and foolish. I think it is only just to point out that "Ignottis " has been so busy looking for Mr. Barrie's purpose that he has obviously missed that which prompted Mrs. Shand to conceal her own powers,—namely, the purpose of avoiding the dis- illusionment of her beloved John ; a disillusionment which would necessarily follow her admission of her own share in his success. This may not be the idealist's view of the form true love should take, but • it must be admitted by students of human nature that it is what actually happens every day. Therefore I would venture to suggest that your critic, by ignoring such a point as this, has proved himself capable of missing all the other human nature (the lack of which he laments) with which the play abounds. The greatest musician cannot produce harmony on an instrument which is out of tune, any more than Mr. Barrie can hope to make the unsympathetic answer to his subtle touch. May not some defect of this kind in the receiver be an explanation of your critic's rather sweeping description of the play as a " mere succession of disconnected notes"? I suggest that "Iguotus " should descend from his pedestal of idealism and take notice of the " folk about him," in the hope that some day it may be given him to recognise and acknowledge that charm of which Maggie Wylie truly says : "If you have it, you don't need anything else, not even education ; and if you haven't it, it doesn't much matter what else you have."—I am, Sir, &c.,-
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