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A Stranger in a Strange Land
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her affairs, and insists on introducing me to some of her friends by bringing them to our boarding-house. She appears, accompanied by a pleasant young man, who, after he has been there a little while, discovers that I have heard of somebody whom he knows well—this world is a very small place—and so he goes on to talk about his friend to me, and the girl who was going to love me forever becomes sulky and disagreeable, insists on going home, and the next morning at the office declines to speak to me, on the ground that I tried to attract one of her admirers. Now, that was the wrong way. I ought to have waited a week at least, three months certainly, before I allowed myself to believe that this extreme affection, so suddenly born, was real.

FRIENDSHIP WORTH HAVING

You complain that the girl who sits next to you is cold toward you. She says a pleasant good-morning to you, remarks something about the weather, and during the day, if it is in her power, very quietly shows you how the work is done. You complain that she is not sympathetic. Why should she be when she knows nothing at all about you? Gradually the weeks go by, and one evening you find on your desk a couple of tickets for a concert given by some club to which she belongs,