Dramatis Personæ, Chapter 1

⁠​​​‌​​​​​​​​‌‌‌​​‌‌‌‌​‌​​‌‌‌​​​‌​​​​‌‌‌​​​‌‌‌‌‌​​​‌‌​​‌​‌​​‌​​​​⁠It must be for the thousandth time now he was sitting down at the neat table looking out on the little lawn, and trying to get his ideas together, trying to get something new, something startling, that would awaken these hard-boiled men who had control of theaters, magazines, publishing houses to the sense that he was alive, worth while, valuable. If he could only think up a new detective, or—or s