With some it is natural. I was struck to-day with the sweet graciousness of a young girl, ill dressed (for her) and very busy, who almost deceived me into wasting ten extra minutes of her precious time, by the satisfied air with which she sat down beside me in her parlor and welcomed my inopportune appearance. It was not politic, to be sure, for getting her cake making done, but, ah how politic for winning admiration! Of the few whom I have remarked, in our busy American life, as possessing this faculty supremely, one family had long lived abroad, and were people of leisure. The look of content, and of being established for an indefinite time, with which any one of them sat on the sofa before a dull chance acquaintance, was an imprint, no doubt, of their idle life, but it was also the imprint of an exquisite training. It was the quintessence of the aristocratic manner. We do not want gilded uselessness; far better remain as we are; busy, even if chiefly for ourselves; but there are some who, in the midst of hard work, have been wise enough to leave spare time in their plan of life for casual meetings with their fellows. I think of two women, both, as it happened, the main stay of churches—churches widely removed in geography and opinion; both were responsible in the care of those churches, and both entered with marvelous industry into the details and into the drudgery of their work. I heard a servant say of one that she had never known her to utter an impatient word when cards were handed in; while her cordial ways won the hearts of all. The other, older and poorer, and not versed in the ways of the world, it was even more wonderful to see sitting hour after hour engrossed and pleased as one and another used up her morning; though the standing puzzle among all who knew her was, how she possibly found time for all she did. This heartiness is more attractive to the small than to the great among one’s friends; for those full of attractions themselves are not so apt to be received with indifference. It is those modest as to their own fascinations who are grateful for being made welcome and at home; the shy girl just emerged from the school room to do her difficult part in society, the old lady who is painfully conscious that she knows very little about the topics of the day, the estimable young man of moderate capacity. These must be tolerated—why should they not be made happy?