permanent terms some of this interesting intelligence. To my
intense surprise and disappointment, I found myself entirely unable
to recollect, much less to express, any of his statements. They had
melted in the mind, like some delicate confection, and left behind
them nothing but a faint aroma of interest and pleasure.

This would be a dangerous example to imitate, because it requires a
very subtle species of art to select incidents and episodes which
should both gratify the hearers, and which at the same time it
should be impossible to hand on. Most people who attempted such a
task would sink into being miserable blabbers of tacenda, mere
sieves through which matters of secret importance would granulate
into the hands of ardent journalists. But at once to stimulate and
gratify curiosity, and to give a quiet circle the sense of being
admitted to the inmost penetralia of affairs, is a triumph of
conversational art.

Dr. Johnson used to say that he loved to stretch his legs and have
his talk out; and the fact remains that the best conversation one
gets is the conversation that one does not scheme for, and even on
occasions from which one has expected but little. The talks that
remain in my mind as of pre-eminent interest are long leisurely
tete-a-tete talks, oftenest perhaps of all in the course of a walk,
when exercise sends the blood coursing through the brain, when a
pleasant countryside tunes the spirit to a serene harmony of mood,
and when the mind, stimulated into a joyful readiness by
association with some quiet, just, and perceptive companion, visits
its dusty warehouse, and turns over its fantastic stores. Then is
the time to penetrate into the inmost labyrinths of a subject, to
indulge in pleasing discursiveness, as the fancy leads one, and yet