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Lady Windermere. (Moves up.) Lord Darlington, will you give me back my fan, please? Thanks.... A useful thing, a fan, isn’t it?
When Mrs. Erlynne enters, Lady Windermere “clutches at her fan, then lets it drop on the floor”:
Lord Darlington. You have dropped your fan, Lady Windermere. (Picks it up and hands it to her.)
Such careful emphasizing makes sure that Lord Windermere’s instant recognition of the significance of finding the fan in Lord Darlington’s rooms, in the critical scene of the third act, will be immediately shared by any audience.
Mr. Augustus Thomas, in Act II of As a Man Thinks, wishes his audience to feel instantly the full significance of the opera libretto picked up by Hoover, as he watches Elinor enter the apartment of De Lota. Therefore, earlier in the act he emphasizes as follows:
Elinor. (To Burril.) Here’s a libretto of Aida. Find that passage of which you spoke.
Burril. There were several.
Mrs. Seelig. Our coffee won’t interfere with your cigars.
De Lota. Do you mind?