Page:Side talks with girls (1895).djvu/234

222 and a little card saying that she hopes you will bring me. We go together, and after the concert is over she introduces her sister, and possibly her brother to us. Perhaps two weeks later we are asked to spend an evening with her, listen to some music, and have a bit of supper. Her home is only a little flat, but her mother is there, and the whole place is fragrant with an essence of hospitality. Months and years may pass, and that girl, though we may become great friends or simply pleasant acquaintances, will never be as effusive as the young woman who was in the office with me, but she will, as the friendship grows, prove that her affection is worth having and therefore worth winning. An acquaintance made with great ease is usually dropped in the same rapid way. Time does wither it, and custom proves its undesirability. Do you see what I mean?

It is so difficult to know how to do what is just right here. Neither you nor I want to sit at the table like disagreeable mummies and say nothing, so what shall we do? I have no trouble in deciding that I prefer to go from the table to a book, and have nothing more than a mere bowing acquaintance with any of the people there. But you, who are a sociable little creature, you, who