He decided it was because when he was eating with Ma and Pa, he did not think or bother to wonder how he was acting. He was neither careful nor self-critical. He was not concerned about producing an effect. He felt composed, relaxed, and did all right. Mangan cured his self-consciousness by remembering how he had felt, and how he had acted, when he “was eating in the kitchen with Ma and Pa.” Then, when he walked into a high-class dining room, he would imagine or pretend that he “was going to eat with Ma and Pa”—and act that way.
