The rocking chairs creaked gently as two well-dressed women enjoyed the shade of a grand Southern porch. The first woman, radiant in her pearls, sighed happily. “My husband built this house when our first child arrived,” she said, admiring the manicured lawn.
Her friend, ever the picture of grace, smiled and replied, “Well, isn’t that nice?”
The first woman continued listing her husband’s generous gifts—a Cadillac for their second child, a diamond bracelet for their third—each time met with the same polite response. Finally, she turned the question around. “What did your husband give you when your first was born?”
With a mischievous glint, her friend answered, “Charm school.”
At the first woman’s puzzled look, she explained, “I learned to say, ‘Well, isn’t that nice?’ instead of something less polite.”
The two shared a laugh. Later, as the conversation shifted, the first woman complained about her son’s wife, who lazed about while he served her breakfast in bed. “How dreadful,” her friend murmured.
But when she bragged about her daughter’s husband doing the same, her friend simply smiled and repeated, “Well, isn’t that nice?”
Proof that tone is everything.
