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from ignorance of the individual.
Before Sumner could treat a stranger in a friendly manner, he wished to know what sort of a person he had to deal with.
There is a kind of insincerity in universal cordiality,--like that of the candidate who is seeking to obtain votes.
A recent writer, who complains of Sumner's lack of graciousness, would do well to ask his conscience what the reason for it was. If he will drop the three last letters of his own name the solution will be apparent to him.
The more Sumner became absorbed in public affairs the less he seemed to be suited to general society,--or general society to him. He was always ready to talk on those subjects that interested him, but in general conversation, in the pleasant give-and-take of wit and anecdote, he did not feel so much at home as he had in his Cambridge days.
His thoughts were too serious, and the tendency of his mind was argumentative.
Every man is to a certain extent the victim of his occupation; and the formalities of the Senate were ever tightening their grasp on Sumner's mode of life.
One afternoon, as he was leaving Dr. Howe's garden at South Boston, the doctor's youngest daughter ran out from the house, and called to him, “Good-bye, Mr. Sumner.”
His back was already turned, but he faced about like an officer on parade, and
1905. E. P. DUtton and Co. Boston,.
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