If you are at a concert, or a private musical party, never
beat time with your feet or your cane. Nothing is more
unpleasant.

Few things are more agreeable or more difficult, than to
relate anecdotes with entire propriety. They should be
introduced gracefully, have fit connexion with the previous
remarks, and be in perfect keeping with the company, the
subject and the tone of the conversation; they should be
short, witty and eloquent, and they should be new but not
far-fetched.

In rapid and eager discourse, when persons are excited and
impatient, as at a ball or in a promenade, repeat nothing but
the spirit and soul of a story, leaping over the particulars.
There are however many places and occasions in which you may
bring out the details with advantage, precisely, but not
tediously. When you repeat a true story be always extremely
exact. Mem. Not to forget the point of your story, like most
narrators.

When you are telling a flat anecdote by mistake, laugh
egregiously, that others may do the same: when you repeat a
spirited and striking bon mot, be grave and composed, in
order that others may not be the same.

For one who has travelled much, to hit the proper medium
between too much reserve and too much intrusion, on the
subject of his adventures, is not easy. Such a person is
expected to give amusement by pleasant histories of his