We could no more smile in their presence than we could laugh while at a funeral.

Their gloomy miasmatic atmosphere chills all our natural impulses.

In their presence there is no possibility of expansion for us.

As a dark cloud suddenly obscures the brightness of a smiling summer sky, their shadows are cast upon us and fill us with vague, undefinable uneasiness.
We instinctively feel that such people have no sympathy with our aspirations, and our natural prompting is to guard closely any expression of our hopes and ambitions.

When they are near us our laudable purposes and desires shrink into insignificance and mere foolishness; the charm of sentiment vanishes and life seems to lose color and zest.