That question of first impressions has always bothered me a good
deal-- but quite academically. I mean that, from time to time I
have wondered whether it were or were not best to trust to one's
first impressions in dealing with people. But I never had anybody
to deal with except waiters and chambermaids and the
Ashburnhams, with whom I didn't know that I was having any
dealings. And, as far as waiters and chambermaids were
concerned, I have generally found that my first impressions were
correct enough. If my first idea of a man was that he was civil,
obliging, and attentive, he generally seemed to go on being all
those things. Once, however, at our Paris flat we had a maid who
appeared to be charming and transparently honest. She stole,
nevertheless, one of Florence's diamond rings. She did it, however,
to save her young man from going to prison. So here, as somebody
says somewhere, was a special case.
And, even in my short incursion into American business life--an
incursion that lasted during part of August and nearly the whole of
September--I found that to rely upon first impressions was the best
thing I could do. I found myself automatically docketing and
labelling each man as he was introduced to me, by the run of his
features and by the first words that he spoke.
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