The young girl who admired her own facile adjectives said to a casual acquaintance:  “How can you go about with that moth-eaten, squint-eyed, bag of a girl!” “Because,” answered the youth whom she had intended to dazzle, “the lady of your flattering epithets happens to be my sister.”

It is scarcely necessary to say that one whose tactless remarks ride rough-shod over the feelings of others, is not welcomed by many.

=THE BORE=

A bore is said to be “one who talks about himself when you want to talk about yourself!” which is superficially true enough, but a bore might more accurately be described as one who is interested in what does not interest you, and insists that you share his enthusiasm, in spite of your disinclination.  To the bore life holds no dullness; 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.