Chatterboxes.

Otago Witness, Issue 3315, 26 September 1917, Page 50

Chatterboxes.

Sometimes they are amusing enough, and we smile indulgently at their ripple of words that, like the brook, threatens to "go on for ever." But at other times they annoy us ; we are -tired may be, or dull, or anxious to be quiet and think over some problem that is worrying us. Yet the chatterbox persists in her unwanted conversation, and bores us to death.

She is at her worst, however, in public, for the instinct of a well-bred Briton is to be less talkative then than when at home or with friends. Not so the chatterbox ; she revels in the fact that there is an audience, and cares not whether it is amused or a slightly contemptuous one. Restaurant, train, teashop, or crowded street, it is all one to her; she flows on and oil with her "airy nothings," or worse, her personal remarks, until we writhe in anguish and long for the-earth to swallow us up. The quiet person opposite may be the dearest friend'of the character the chatterbox is dissecting — how truly dreadful such a thought! We are spared no pang of this sort when we are abroad with the confirmed chatterbox; is it any wonder that we do not risk a second experience if we can help it?