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idyllic relations he thought he had formed.
    In 1906 Barrie, who had already lost his mother and father and other members of his family, was saddened to learn that Arthur Davies had cancer. Although Barrie had always been distrusted and disliked by Davies, he became even more devoted to him and his family during Davies’s illness, often providing financial assistance. After a courageous struggle, Davies died on April 19, 1907. Meanwhile, unknown to Barrie, who had now assumed the role of surrogate father and husband in the Davies household, his own wife was having an affair. Though he had just written one of his best social satires about human relations,
What Every Woman Knows
(1908), he was not very perceptive regarding his most intimate relationship, and his own marriage ended in a divorce in 1909, when he finally learned about Mary’s affair. Shaken by this break, he could barely write plays after this, for not only had Mary left him, but Sylvia Davies had also become seriously ill in the summer of 1909. She died the following year, on August 27, 1910.
    Distraught and depressed, Barrie took solace in the thought that Sylvia had supposedly promised to marry him. What probably sustained him more, though, was his new role as surrogate father to the five Davies boys. Later in his life Peter Davies commented on some of Barrie’s letters:
    Though it is nowhere explicitly stated, there is a clear enough underlying assumption that the principal part in the direction of her sons’ destinies would be taken by J.M.B. He is named more often and more prominently than any of the other “trustees and guardians.” On the other hand there is no suggestion that he was able to have sole control, either financially—but perhaps the financial vagueness of the will suggests that this was taken for granted—or as guide counsellor and friend (
J. M. Barrie: The Man Behind the Image
, 241).
    Actually, it did not matter what the will stated; Barrie took charge of the boys. Significantly, it was at exactly this time that Barrie adapted the play
Peter Pan
and wrote the novel
Peter and Wendy
, which was published in 1911.
    Even as he sought to take control of “my boys,” as he called them, and even though he was anointed a baron and became Sir James Barrie in 1913, he could not determine the destinies of those closest to him. The tragedies continued. Barrie’s brother Alec, who had played such a great role in his youth, died in 1913. George, the eldest Davies son, was killed in 1915 while fighting in World War I. That same year, his close friend Charles Frohman, who had produced
Peter Pan
, lost his life while traveling to London to see Barrie and to take care of business affairs, when the luxury liner
Lusitania
was torpedoed and sunk on May 7. Peter, the third eldest Davies son, went to France in 1917 only to return from the war shattered. Even after the war ended in 1918 there was more tragedy in store for Barrie when his favorite Davies son, Michael, died in a swimming accident on May 27, 1921.
    This last death was particularly devastating for Barrie because he had been very close to Michael and had great expectations for him. Fortunately for Barrie, in 1917 he had met Lady Cynthia Asquith, who became his private secretary and emotional support in his later years. When they met, Lady Cynthia was thirty years old and the mother of two sons. A beautiful and gifted woman who eventually published some books for children and her memoirs, Lady Cynthia was also a replacement for Sylvia Davies. Yet she played a different role than Sylvia Davies had. As much as Barrie proceeded to invade and take over her life and family, she took over his and became responsible for the organization of his life, especially during the 1930s.
    Although Barrie had one last successful play,
Mary Rose
, produced in 1920, he had lost his joy in writing for the stage, having never reconciled himself to Michael’s death. On the other hand, with the help of Lady Asquith,