得體的文章最忌宂長；長則本來得體也變為不得體了。B.L. Taylor説：世上悶人真多，你問他好，他真的一五一十告訴你他好不好（“A bore is a man who when you ask him how he is， tells you”）。文章一悶，當然就不會得體矣！千萬不可相信喋喋不休的高談之士説「總而言之」；那不是結束語，是重新開講（“Beware of the conversationalist who adds 'in conclusion'. He is merely starting afresh”），Robert Morley説的。 讀文章不妨先瞄一瞄收尾的部分，一見「總而言之」、「最後」等語，此文必悶，也難得體。
OK, I confess, I'm not a great conversationalist. But I know some people who are, and I've studied what they do e.g.
He was more inspired (and inspiring) as a teacher and conversationalist than as a writer.
He is even - tempered, easy - going and an excellent conversationalist.
One of the student currently in trouble for attacking my conversationalist is a girl with a particularly difficult fe.
But while Alfred is a good substitute for a friend who knows all the hot spots, Clever Sense hasn't figured out a way to make it a good conversationalist.
Just as a skilled conversationalist brings alive the least promising interlocutor, so Berlin could conjure a fascinating essay from the most forbidding pages of Fichte, or Vico, or De Maistre.
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