It is easy to
turn a good talker into an insufferable bore by contradicting him, and
putting questions for him to stumble over,--that is, if he is not a bore
already, as "good talkers" are apt to be, except now and then.
We had been discussing some knotty points one morning when he said all at
once:
--Come into my library with me. I want to read you some new passages
from an interleaved copy of my book. You haven't read the printed part
yet. I gave you a copy of it, but nobody reads a book that is given to
him. Of course not. Nobody but a fool expects him to. He reads a
little in it here and there, perhaps, and he cuts all the leaves if he
cares enough about the writer, who will be sure to call on him some day,
and if he is left alone in his library for five minutes will have hunted
every corner of it until he has found the book he sent,--if it is to be
found at all, which does n't always happen, if there's a penal colony
anywhere in a garret or closet for typographical offenders and vagrants.
--What do you do when you receive a book you don't want, from the
author?--said I.
--Give him a good-natured adjective or two if I can, and thank him, and
tell him I am lying under a sense of obligation to him.
--That is as good an excuse for lying as almost any,--I said.
--Yes, but look out for the fellows that send you a copy of their book to
trap you into writing a bookseller's advertisement for it.
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