; every subject is of
unending delight. A story told for the thousandth time has not lost its
thrill; every tiresome detail is held up and turned about as a morsel of
delectableness; to him each pea in a pod differs from another with the
entrancing variety that artists find in tropical sunsets.

On the other hand, to be bored is a bad habit, and one only too easy to
fall into. As a matter of fact, it is impossible, almost, to meet anyone
who has not _something_ of interest to tell you if you are but clever
enough yourself to find out what it is. There are certain always
delightful people who refuse to be bored. Their attitude is that no
subject need ever be utterly uninteresting, so long as it is discussed for
the first time. Repetition alone is deadly dull. Besides, what is the
matter with trying to be agreeable yourself? Not _too_ agreeable. Alas!
it is true: "Be polite to bores and so shall you have bores always round
about you." Furthermore, there is no reason why you should be bored when
you can be otherwise. But if you find yourself sitting in the hedgerow
with nothing but weeds, there is no reason for shutting your eyes and
seeing nothing, instead of finding what beauty you may in the weeds. To
put it cynically, life is too short to waste it in drawing blanks.
Therefore, it is up to you to find as many pictures to put on your blank
pages as possible.

=A FEW IMPORTANT DETAILS OF SPEECH IN CONVERSATION=

Unless you wish to stamp yourself a person who has never been out of
"provincial" society, never speak of your husband as "Mr." except to an
inferior. Mrs. Worldly for instance in talking with a stranger would say
"my husband," and to a friend, meaning one not only whom she calls by her
first name, but anyone on her "dinner list," she says, "Dick thought the
play amusing" or "Dick said----". This does not give her listener the
privilege of calling him "Dick." The listener in return speaks of her own
husband as "Tom" even if he is seventy--unless her hearer is a very young
person (either man or woman), when she would say "my husband." Never "Mr.
Older." To call your husband Mr. means that you consider the person you
are talking to, beneath you in station. Mr. Worldly in the same way speaks
of Mrs. Worldly as "my wife" to a gentleman, or "Edith" in speaking to a
lady. _Always._

In speaking about other people, one says "Mrs.," "Miss" or "Mr." as the
case may be. It is bad form to go about saying "Edith Worldly"