of the law of appearances that existed between the people of the
place and myself, and had resolved to amuse herself at my
expense; for one evening, after some jesting and raillery, she,
somehow or other, provoked me to attempt to kiss her. But she
was well defended from any assault of the kind. Her countenance
became, of a sudden, absurdly hideous; the pretty mouth was
elongated and otherwise amplified sufficiently to have allowed of
six simultaneous kisses. I started back in bewildered dismay;
she burst into the merriest fit of laughter, and ran from the
room. I soon found that the same undefinable law of change
operated between me and all the other villagers; and that, to
feel I was in pleasant company, it was absolutely necessary for
me to discover and observe the right focal distance between
myself and each one with whom I had to do. This done, all went
pleasantly enough. Whether, when I happened to neglect this
precaution, I presented to them an equally ridiculous appearance,
I did not ascertain; but I presume that the alteration was common
to the approximating parties. I was likewise unable to determine
whether I was a necessary party to the production of this strange
transformation, or whether it took place as well, under the given
circumstances, between the inhabitants themselves.





CHAPTER X

"From Eden's bowers the full-fed rivers flow,
To guide the outcasts to the land of woe: