father's--overweening pride and love in exact proportion to its displayed
intensity. On the other hand, the neglected wife, the unappreciated
husband, the misunderstood child, takes on a glamor in the eyes of others
equally out of proportion. That great love has seldom perfect wisdom is
one of the great tragedies in the drama of life. In the case of the
overloving wife or mother, some one should love _her_ enough to make her
_stop and think_ that her loving praise is not merely a question of boring
her hearers but of handicapping unfairly those for whom she would gladly
lay down her life--and yet few would have the courage to point out to her
that she would far better lay down her tongue.

The cynics say that those who take part in social conversation are bound
to be either the bores or the bored; and that which you choose to be, is a
mere matter of selection. And there must be occasions in the life of
everyone when the cynics seem to be right; the man of affairs who, sitting
next to an attractive looking young woman, is regaled throughout dinner
with the detailed accomplishments of the young woman's husband; the woman
of intellect who must listen with interest to the droolings of an
especially prosy man who holds forth on the super-everything of his own
possessions, can not very well consider that the evening was worth
dressing, sitting up, and going out for.

People who talk too easily are apt to talk too much, and at times
imprudently, and those with vivid imagination are often unreliable in
their statements. On the other hand the "man of silence" who never speaks
except when he has something "worth while" to say, is apt to wear well
among his intimates, but is not likely to add much to the gaiety of a
party.

Try not to repeat yourself; either by telling the same story again and