There must at the dénou
ement be
surprise, & yet the surprise must not be complete.
Hence the criminal must not be an outsider of whom we've
hardly heard.
He
must not be || Nor the detective, unless the
detective
was made out the sort of
man, one might have suspected
; the criminal must not
be || . Nor the nice young man, or nice young
woman to whom during the whole course of the story we wish
happiness
,
on || : On the other hand he must not be the
9
one
obvious suspect. These rules are very stringent &
leave only a very
small || narrow margin for
the writer, as it were a tiny dance floor on which to perform.