which I recommended to him, under another name, as a sovereign
remedy against flatulence, and which nearly strangled him he took
such a premeditated swallow), brought me into one of the loveliest
little villages in all this western country, and there I saw many
things--among others--a woman!--

"A woman!--that one word, you dog, will explain the mystery--will
show you why I am thus transmuted, TRANSMOGRIFIED, and in 'a state
of betweenity.' Nothing less, I assure you, could make me disguise
myself after the present fashion; wear the sanctimonious and sour
phiz which the common law of modern religion prescribes, and keep
me much longer from the pleasanter communion of such glorious
imps, as I suppose, are, even now, beginning to gather in the dingy
smoke-room of our sovereign Murkey. But this woman, you will ask.
Ay, ay, but you shall have no answer yet. It shall be enough for
you that she is a queen of Sheba, after her own fashion. A proud,
imperious, passionate creature--tall, really beautiful--and so
majestic! You should see the flashing of her eyes to know what sort
of a thing is moral lightning. Her face kindles up in an instant.
She is an intensifier, and like most such, cursedly smart. Young
too--scarce eighteen, I think; queer too--almost tyrannical at
times--but full of blood, of unregulated passions, moody, capricious,
and, of course, easy game, if the sportsman knows anything of
the habits of the bird. She is a country-girl, but no hoyden. Her
intensity of character, her pride and great self-esteem, have made
her a solitary. Unsophisticated in some respects, she is yet not
to be surprised. In solitude, and a taste for it, she has acquired
a sort of moral composure which makes her secure against surprise.
I am really taken with the girl, and COULD love her, I tell you--nay,
do love her--so long as love can keep himself--out of a state of