PLAYGOER: I am glad to see you again after so long an absence. Where have you been?

STAGE-DIRECTOR: Abroad. PLAYGOER: What have you been doing all this time? STAGE-DIRECTOR: Hunting. PLAYGOER: Have you turned sportsman, then? STAGE-DIRECTOR: I have; it keeps one in good health. It exercises all the

muscles. I shall do better work when I recommence. PLAYGOER: Tell me about it all, where you have been hunting and what you

have bagged. STAGE-DIRECTOR: I have bagged nothing, for the beast that has occupied me

is not caught like a rabbit or a hare, and is far more wary than a fox. Besides, the sport is not in the kill; the sport lies in the difficulties which must be surmounted to get at the beast, and there is no danger at all after you have found him; I have been hunting the monster of a Fable.