l "place" him. To be in a hurry to speak is to betray oneself, and
embarrassment ensues on both sides.

This command of quiet is also a protection against tiresome,
talkative, people. It enables one to preserve an air of kindly
attention, while one's thoughts, free and untrammeled, roam at their
own sweet will, drifting back just in time to utter an appreciative
affirmative, or negative.

A Good Listener.

This repose of manner is a boon to the shy and awkward man, who, under
its influence, actually acquires some confidence in himself, which is
simply impossible when he is bombarded with a volley of vivacious
conversation.

Learn to be a good listener, a sympathetic and interested listener,
and the majority of people will pronounce you "interesting." If the
partner assigned you at a dinner party seems to have no topic in
common with your thought, strive to find out what does interest him; a
few skillful questions, and he is launched on a tide of talk, at his
ease, even brilliant, and all that is needed on your part is to appear
interested. Whether you understand the subject, or care for it, is
another question; you have established your place in that man's
estimation, and he will ever thereafter have a word of praise when
your name is mentioned.

There are women who are themselves not fluent, and who enjoy being
talked to, to be spared the trouble of "making conversation." With
these women it is the ready talker who finds favor. But there is
another class of women quite as large who love to talk, and to them
the good listener is welcome; therefore, let the man who wishes to
talk choose his audience with discretion.

Madame Recamier liked to be talked to, and was so sympathetic a
listener that the careful student of her times is forced to conclude
that was one of the chiefest of her charms, but he would have been a
bold man who would have interrupted the flow of Madame de Stael's
eloquence.

Men are less inclined to certain forms of etiquette than women. Not
that they would be less polite, but, as a rule, they do not attach so
much importance to the little niceties of life, and they are too prone
to lack in certain courtesies which a society man should practice.

How Men are Spoiled.

This process of spoiling begins with the mothers, and ends with the
young women. Women pride themselves upon being independent, and the
result is that the men naturally fall back and let them wait upon
themselves. Women tak