Students dislike to be told that their speeches are “not so bad,” spoken with a rising inflection.  To enunciate these words with a long falling inflection would indorse the speech rather heartily.

Say good-bye to an imaginary person whom you expect to see again tomorrow; then to a dear friend you never expect to meet again.  Note the difference in inflection.

“I have had a delightful time,” when spoken at the termination of a formal tea by a frivolous woman takes altogether different inflection than the same words spoken between lovers who have enjoyed themselves.  Mimic the two characters in repeating this and observe the difference.

Note how light and short the inflections are in the following brief quotation from “Anthony the Absolute,” by Samuel Mervin.

    At Sea—­March 28th.

    This evening I told Sir Robert What’s His Name he was a fool.

    I was quite right in this.  He is.

Every evening since the ship left Vancouver he has presided over the round table in the middle of the smoking-room.  There he sips his coffee and liqueur, and holds forth on every subject known to the mind of man.  Each subject is his subject.  He is an elderly person, with a bad face and a drooping left eyelid.

    They tell me that he is in the British Service—­a judge
    somewhere down in Malaysia, where they drink more than is good
    for them.

Deliver the two following selections with great earnestness, and note how the inflections differ from the foregoing.  Then reread these selections in a light, superficial manner, noting that the change of attitude is expressed through a change of inflection.

    When I read a sublime fact in Plutarch, or an unselfish deed in
    a line of poetry, or thrill beneath some heroic legend, it is no
    longer fairyland—­I have seen it matched.

    —­WENDELL PHILLIPS.

    Thought is deeper than all speech,
       Feeling deeper than all thought;
    Souls to souls can never teach
       What unto themselves was taught.

—­CRANCH

It must be made perfectly clear that inflection deals mostly in subtle, delicate shading within single words, and is not by any means accomplished by a general rise or fall in the voice in speaking a sentence.  Yet certain sentences may be effectively delivered with just such inflection.  Try this sentence in several ways, making no modulation until you come to the last two syllables, as indicated,

And yet I told him dis-
__________________________
(high)          |  tinctly.
|___________
(low)

tinctly.
____________
And yet I told him dis- |   (high)
_________________________|
(low)

Now try this sentence by inflecting the important words so as to bring out various shades of meaning.  The first forms, illustrated above, show change of pitch within a single word; the forms you will work out for yourself should show a number of such inflections throughout the sentence.