excited and insist on standing up. If those in front stand--those behind
naturally have to! Generally people call out "down in front." If they
won't stay "down," then all those behind have to stay "up." Also umbrellas
and parasols entirely blot out the view of those behind.




CHAPTER VII

CONVERSATION


=NEED OF RECIPROCITY=

Ideal conversation should be a matter of equal give and take, but too
often it is all "take." The voluble talker--or chatterer--rides his own
hobby straight through the hours without giving anyone else, who might
also like to say something, a chance to do other than exhaustedly await
the turn that never comes. Once in a while--a very long while--one meets a
brilliant person whose talk is a delight; or still more rarely a wit who
manipulates every ordinary topic with the agility of a sleight-of-hand
performer, to the ever increasing rapture of his listeners.

But as a rule the man who has been led to believe that he is a brilliant
and interesting talker has been led to make himself a rapacious pest. No
conversation is possible between others whose ears are within reach of his
ponderous voice; anecdotes, long-winded stories, dramatic and pathetic,
stock his repertoire; but worst of all are his humorous yarns at which he
laughs uproariously though every one else grows solemn and more solemn.