They put themselves behind and within their characters, and so make us feel that every act of their personages is not only natural but even--given the conditions--inevitable.
We recognise that their story is the sole logical outcome of the interaction of their dramatis personae.

Now, _I_ am not a great novelist; I cannot create and imagine characters and situations.

But I have something of the novelist's gift; I apply the same method to the real life of the people around me.

I try to throw myself into the person of others, and to feel how their character will compel them to act in each set of circumstances to which they may expose themselves." "In one word," I said, "you are a psychologist." "A psychologist," she assented; "I suppose so; and the police--well, the police are not; they are at best but bungling materialists.

They require a CLUE.