te_ conversation between guests--The raconteur at dinner 89

Chapter V

TALK OF HOST AND HOSTESS AT DINNER

The amalgam for combining guests--Hosts' talk during the quarter of
an hour before dinner--Seating guests to enhance conversation--Number
of guests for the best conversation--Directing the conversation at
dinner--Drawing guests out--Signaling for conversation--General and
_tete-a-tete_ conversation--Putting strangers at ease--Steering talk
away from offensive topics--The gracious host and hostess--An ideal
dinner party 111

Chapter VI

INTERRUPTION IN CONVERSATION

Its deadening effect on conversation--Habitual interruption--Nervous
interruption--Glib talkers--Interrupting by over-accuracy--Interruptions
outside the conversation-circle--Children and their interruption--Good
talk at table--Anecdotes of children's appreciation of good
conversation--The hostess who is "Mistress of herself tho China
fall" 133

Chapter VII

POWER OF FITNESS, TACT, AND NICETY IN BUSINESS WORDS.

Why cultivating the social instinct adds strength to business
persuasion--Secret of the ability to use tactful and vivid words in
business--Essential training necessary to the nice use of
words--Business success depends upon nicety and tact more than on
any quality of force 161

Chapter VIII

CONCLUSION

Conversation is reciprocal--Good conversationalists cannot talk to
the best advantage without confederates--As in whist it is the
combination which effects what a single whist-playing genius cannot
accomplish--Good conversation does not mark a distinction among
subjects; It denotes a difference in talkability--The different
degrees of talkability--Imperturbable glibness impedes good
conversation--Ease with which one may improve one's conversational
powers 175

CHAPTER I

_INTRODUCTORY_

WHAT CONVERSATION IS AND WHAT IT IS NOT

_What Is the Aim of Conversation?--The Talk of Coleridge and
Macaulay--Browning's Delightful Conversation--Why We Go into
Society--The Elements of Good Conversation--What It Is Not--Genius
and Scholarship Not Essential to Good Conversation._

CHAPTER I

_INTRODUCTORY_

WHAT CONVERSATION IS AND WHAT IT IS NOT

Good conversation is more