Personals are always read first.

In drawing Mary and Henry out, I am getting acquainted with you." "It's not a good way.

You like it merely because it teases me and saves trouble.

If you must gossip and surmise about me, wait till I'm absent." "There, Madge, you know I'm nine-tenths in fun," said he, laughing.
"That leaves a small margin for kindly interest in an old acquaintance," was her reply as they rose from the table, and he saw that her feelings were hurt.
"Confound it!" he thought, with irritation, "it's all so uncalled-for and unnatural! Nothing is as it used to be.

Well, then, I'll talk about books and matters as impersonal as if we were disembodied spirits." They had scarcely seated themselves on the piazza before Miss Wildmere came forward and introduced her mother.