to say to each other; and in the best-selected company one may sit beside a stupid man—­that is, stupid for the purpose of a ‘tete-a-tete’.  But this is not the worst of it.  No one can talk well without an audience; no one is stimulated to say bright things except by the attention and questioning and interest of other minds.  There is little inspiration in side talk to one or two.  Nobody ought to go to a dinner who is not a good listener, and, if possible, an intelligent one.  To listen with a show of intelligence is a great accomplishment.  It is not absolutely essential that there should be a great talker or a number of good talkers at a dinner if all are good listeners, and able to “chip in” a little to the general talk that springs up.  For the success of the dinner does not necessarily depend upon the talk being brilliant, but it does depend upon its being general, upon keeping the ball rolling round the table; the old-fashioned game becomes flat when the balls all disappear into private pockets.  There are dinners where the object seems to be to pocket all the balls as speedily as possible.  We have learned that that is not the best game; the best game is when you not only depend on the carom, but in going to the cushion before you carom; that is to say, including the whole table, and making things lively.  The hostess succeeds who is able to excite this general play of all the forces at the table, even using the silent but not non-elastic material as cushions, if one may continue the figure.  Is not this, O brothers and sisters, an evil under the sun, this dinner as it is apt to be conducted?  Think of the weary hours you have given to a rite that should be the highest social pleasure!  How often when a topic is started that promises well, and might come to something in a general exchange of wit and fancy, and some one begins to speak on it, and speak very well, too, have you not had a lady at your side cut in and give you her views on it—­views that might be amusing if thrown out into the discussion, but which are simply impertinent as an interruption!  How often when you have tried to get a “rise” out of somebody opposite have you not had your neighbor cut in across you with some private depressing observation to your next neighbor!  Private talk at a dinner-table is like private chat at a parlor musicale, only it is more fatal to the general enjoyment.  There is a notion that the art of conversation, the ability to talk well, has gone out.  That is a great mistake.  Opportunity is all that is needed.  There must be the inspiration of the clash of minds and the encouragement of good listening.  In an evening round the fire, when couples begin, to whisper or talk low to each other, it is time to put out the lights.  Inspiring interest is gone.  The most brilliant talker in the world is dumb.  People whose idea of a dinner is private talk between seat-neighbors should limit the company to two.  They have no right to spoil what can be the most agreeable social institution that civilization has evolved.