midnight
They are as true as fiction . = Fiction Which Is True . = -- Not only do the great characters of fiction convince us of reality : in the mere events themselves of worthy fiction we feel a fitness that makes us know them real . Sentimental Tommy really did lose that literary competition because he wasted a full hour searching vainly for the one right word ; Hetty Sorrel really killed her child ; and Mr. Henry must have won that midnight duel with the Master of Ballantrae , though the latter was the better swordsman . These incidents conform to truths we recognize . And not only in the fiction that clings close to actuality do we feel a sense of truth . We feel it just as keenly in fairy tales like those of Hans Christian Andersen , or in the worthiest wonder-legends of an earlier age .