His Tact.

He was accused of wanting tact by mediocrities who had none, though no woman ever had more. By a fine instinct, which was half perception and half sympathy, page 220he seemed to know far in advance when he was approaching dangerous ground. Like the Maori female guide who conducts the tourist over the quaking and steaming sides of the hills near Rotorua, he infallibly picked his way among the pitfalls of social intercourse. He followed the turns and windings of his interlocutor's talk with sympathy, with approval, at times with condemnatory silence, but always with full appreciation.