But, if we look the matter thoughtfully and honestly in the face, we will acknowledge that in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred we are attracted toward a person as soon as we learn that that person finds us agreeable.

Of course this knowledge must not be conveyed in a manner that disgusts by effusiveness a sensitive person.

None of us like fulsome flattery, but a compliment so delicately hinted that it does not shock, and scarcely surprises the person for whom it is intended, seldom fails to produce an impression that is far from disagreeable.

Certainly no more graceful compliment can be paid a man or woman by us selfish mortals than the acknowledgment of an affinity between ourselves and the person whom we would honor by our friendship.

Said a well-known scholar to me: "The most laudatory public speech ever addressed to me failed to make my heart glow as warmly as did the remark of an old friend not long ago.