His despair at the sight of the rivulets that, running from his umbrella, spread themselves over the polished surface of the wood, prevented him from thinking of anything but his unpardonable stupidity. His native awkwardness became all the worse at this and, utterly unable to proffer any but the most confused excuses, he fled from the office of his chief leaving the latter in a high state of irritation.
He was replaced by some one else at the first opportunity, on the pretext that the direction of important affairs could no longer be left in the hands of a man of such notorious incapacity.
It should be added that this man was more than ordinarily intelligent and that his successor was by no means his equal.
It is, therefore, absolutely necessary for those who are lacking in presence of mind to accustom themselves to a species of rehearsal before undertaking any really important step.
Does this imply that they must think of nothing but weighty affairs and neglect occasions for social meetings?
By no means. To those who are distrustful of themselves every occasion is a pretext for avoiding action.
They should, therefore, take pains to seek every possible opportunity of cultivating poise.
The entering of a theater; the walking into a drawing-room; the acknowledging of a woman's bow; every one of these things should be for them a subject of careful study, and if, when evening comes, the daily self-examination leaves them satisfied with themselves, it will be a cause of much encouragement to them.
If, on the other hand, they have received a rebuff due to their lack of poise, they should carefully examine into the reasons for this, in order to guard against such an occurrence in the future.
A good preparatory exercise is to choose those of our friends whose homes are unpretentious and who have few callers.