Excerpt from As I Was Saying Some men talk too much. Even in this environment I am prepared to admit it. Yet it would be a mistake not to talk at all; good conversation is a sort of mental mas sage. At least two people, however, are necessary to bring it about. So if I sit me down to write an essay, which Mr. Ernest Rhys says is something between speaking and Writing, I must at least imagine a' companion. First of all, he must not talk too much that is my business. On the other hand he must not be flabbily attentive, nodding his head acquiescently whenever I look at him. One may practice that deception in church, and I am no preacher. If he be a man, I think I prefer to have him chewing a straw as he listens. Appearance is of no great moment, but I think he has a smooth shaven face, tanned and deeply wrinkled by age and weather, with many crinkles at the corners of his blue eyes. He is tall and angular, and has spent much of his life in the open. He likes me, with a real and long-tested regard, though there are moments when I suspect a sort of amused tolerance. As for his name, it might be Silas, or even Jabez, or Ephraim. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.