tempt to make oneself into a brilliant
talker, because the qualities needed--humour, quickness, the power of
seeing unexpected connections, picturesque phrasing, natural charm,
sympathy, readiness, and so forth--are things hardly attainable by
effort. But much can be done by perseverance; and it is possible to
form a deliberate habit of conversation by determining that however
much one may be indisposed to talk, however unpromising one's
companions may seem, one will at all events keep up an end. I have
known really shy and unready persons who from a sheer sense of duty
have made themselves into very tolerable talkers. A friend of my
acquaintance confesses that a device she has occasionally employed is
to think of subjects in alphabetical order. I could not practise this
device myself, because when I had lighted upon, we will say, algebra,
archery, and astigmatism, as possible subjects for talk, I should find
it impossible to invent any gambit by which they could be successfully
introduced.

The only recipe which I would offer to a student of the art is not to
be afraid of apparent egotism, but to talk frankly of any subject in
which he may be interested, from a personal point of view. An
impersonal talker is apt to be a dull dog. There is nothing like a
frank expression of personal views to elicit an equally frank
expression of divergence or agreement. Neither is it well to despise
the day of small things; the weather, railway travelling, symptoms of
illness, visits to a dentist, sea-sickness, as representing the
universal experiences and interests of humanity, will often serve as
points d'appui.

Of course there come to all people horrible tongue-tied moments when
they can think of nothing to say, and, feel like a walrus on an
ice-floe, heavy, melancholy, ineffective. Such a catastrophe is almost
invariably precipitated in my own case by being told that some one is
particularly anxious to be introduced to me. A philosopher of my
acquaintance, who was an admirable talker, told me that on a certain
occasion, an evening party, his hostess led up a young girl to him,
like Iphigenia decked for the sacrifice, and said that Miss ---- was
desirous of meeting him. The world became instantly a blank to him. The
enthusiastic damsel stared at him with large admiring eyes. After a
period of agonized silence, a remark occurred to him which he felt
might have been appropriate if it had been made earlier in the
encounter. He rejec