I have to admit I am not entirely sure that I understand
your question. What you seem to be talking about is how does Saki make this story so
effective in terms of his design of the short story. This is of course a darkly humorous
tale where a poor, sick man is exploited by a ferociously intelligent and quick young
lady. To me, this story celebrates the power of storytelling to deceive and to mislead -
it is highly ironic that the story ends with yet another tale that conveniently explains
away the strange behaviour of Mr. Nuttel.
Of course, what
is absolutely key to the success of this story is the fact that we only find out the
"truth" about Vera at the end of the tale when she weaves this second tale to explain
Mr. Nuttel's swift exit. The last, brief line seems to sum up so much of Vera's
character:
Romance at short notice was her
speciality.
It is only at the
end of the story that we realise how Framton Nuttel has been deceived and exploited for
Vera's own amusement - and how she has just done the same to her family. Although we as
readers have the benefit of discovering the truth at last, we, just like Framton Nuttel
and Vera's family have been taken in by her convincing performance and her sheer verve
at storytelling, and so, in a sense, the joke has been played on us as well. In this, I
believe, lies the success of this great story.
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