No matter, just at this moment, what he said; but he talked the
Member of the Haouse asleep again.
They have a new term nowadays (I am speaking to you, the Reader) for
people that do a good deal of talking; they call them "conversationists,"
or "conversationalists "; talkists, I suppose, would do just as well. It
is rather dangerous to get the name of being one of these phenomenal
manifestations, as one is expected to say something remarkable every time
one opens one's mouth in company. It seems hard not to be able to ask for
a piece of bread or a tumbler of water, without a sensation running round
the table, as if one were an electric eel or a torpedo, and couldn't be
touched without giving a shock. A fellow is n't all battery, is he? The
idea that a Gymnotus can't swallow his worm without a coruscation of
animal lightning is hard on that brilliant but sensational being. Good
talk is not a matter of will at all; it depends--you know we are all
half-materialists nowadays--on a certain amount of active congestion of
the brain, and that comes when it is ready, and not before. I saw a man
get up the other day in a pleasant company, and talk away for about five
minutes, evidently by a pure effort of will. His person was good, his
voice was pleasant, but anybody could see that it was all mechanical
labor; he was sparring for wind, as the Hon.
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