But to do this, I should have to believe
that it was the one thing in the world for me to do; and I have
permitted a doubt of that to gain entrance to my brain! My poor
aunt's exhortations inspire me to efforts to regain the faith of my
mothers, but I simply cannot--I cannot! She sits by me with the
terror of all the women of all the ages in her eyes. I am losing a
man!
"I don't know if you have ever set out to hold a man--deliberately,
I mean. Probably you haven't. That bitter maxim of Lady Dee's is the
literal truth of it--'When in doubt, talk about HIM!' If you will
tactfully and shrewdly keep a man talking about himself, his tastes,
his ideas, his work and the importance of it, there is never the
least possibility of your boring him. You must not just tamely agree
with him, of course; if you hint a difference now and then, and make
him convince you, he will find that stimulating; or if you can
manage not to be quite convinced, but sweetly open to conviction, he
will surely call again. 'Keep him busy every minute,' Lady Dee used
to say. 'Run away with him now and then--like a spirited horse!' And
she would add, 'But don't let him drop the reins!'
"You can have no idea how many women there are in the world
deliberately playing such parts.
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