he difference in naturalness of
effect.

The following exercise should be spoken in a purely conversational
tone, with numerous changes of pitch. Practise it until your delivery
would cause a stranger in the next room to think you were discussing an
actual incident with a friend, instead of delivering a memorized
monologue. If you are in doubt about the effect you have secured, repeat
it to a friend and ask him if it sounds like memorized words. If it
does, it is wrong.

_A SIMILAR CASE_

Jack, I hear you've gone and done it.--Yes, I know; most fellows
will; went and tried it once myself, sir, though you see I'm
single still. And you met her--did you tell me--down at Newport,
last July, and resolved to ask the question at a _soiree_? So
did I.

I suppose you left the ball-room, with its music and its light;
for they say love's flame is brightest in the darkness of the
night. Well, you walked along together, overhead the starlit
sky; and I'll bet--old man, confess it--you were frightened. So
was I.

So you strolled along the terrace, saw the summer moonlight pour
all its radiance on the waters, as they rippled on the shore,
till at length you gathered courage, when you saw that none was
nigh--did you draw her close and tell her that you loved her? So
did I.

Well, I needn't ask you further, and I'm sure I wish you joy.
Think I'll wander down and see you when you're married--eh, my
boy? When the honeymoon is over and you're settled down, we'll
try--What? the deuce you say! Rejected--you rejected? So was
I.

--_Anonymous_.

The necessity for changing pitch is so self-evident that it should be
grasped and applied immediately. However, it requires patient drill to
free yourself from monotony of pitch.

In natural conversation you think of an idea first, and then find words
to express it. In memorized speeches you are liable to speak the words,
and then think what they mean--and many speakers seem to trouble very
little even about that. Is it any wonder that reversing the process
should reverse the result? Get back to nature in your methods of
expression.

Read the following selection in a nonchalant manner, never pausing to
think what the words really mean. Try it again, carefully studying the
thought you have assimilated. Believe the idea, desire to express it
effectively, and imagine an audience before you. Look them