You’ve probably had the experience of having someone fall in love with you when you didn’t return the feeling. In such a case it’s hard to know what to do. You want to discourage your admirer. Yet you don’t want to be so clear in your efforts that you make an enemy of him.
A friend of mine had this problem and handled (处理) it in the most tactful (得体的) way I’ve ever seen. Instead of telling the young man that she found it tiresome to have him around so much, she devoted herself to introducing him to every girl she knew. Whenever she had a date with him, she arranged (安排) for them to drop in at the home of one of her girl friends. A few weeks was all it took for him to click (一见如故) with one of these girls, and then everyone was happy. The new girl and the young man got along just fine and both of them were grateful to my friend for having brought them together. My friend was rid of a problem and she still had the young man as a friend, which was just what she wanted him to be.
Of course this method may not work for you. You may have your own way of dealing with the problem. But whatever you decide to do, keep one thing in mind—the boy in question has feelings every bit as sensitive as your own. So try to find a way of discouraging him without hurting him. The author asks us to be ______.