drank to my health,
and to that of the rest of the company. While performing the process of
drinking, I could not help gazing upon her, to see how so very remarkable
a person would go to work. The peak of her nose actually dipped down over
the farthest rim of the glass--spanning it as a rainbow spans the Vale of
Glengarry, while the 'limpid ruby' rolled in currents within the embrace
of her delighted lips. The more I gazed upon her, the greater did my
surprise at this extraordinary feature become.

"It is unnecessary to detail at length, the conversation which ensued. It
was tolerably connected, as might be looked for in so small a company,
seldom, branching out into miscellaneous details, and turning chiefly upon
literary matters. But I found it impossible to join in it with any degree
of relish. In vain did my opposite neighbour call up before my imagination
the scenes of my birthplace; in vain did our landlord crack his jokes--for
he was a great humourist--and rally me upon my dulness; in vain did he
allege that I was in love, and good-naturedly fix upon two or three girls
as the objects of my affections. Worthy man! little did he imagine that I
was in love with his cousin's nose.

"In love, yes! I bore the same love towards it, that the squirrel bears to
the rattlesnake--when it gets fascinated by the burning eyeballs, horrid
fangs, and forked tongue of its crawling, slimy, and execrable foe.
Mistake me not, sir, or suppose that I mean to insinuate that Miss Snooks
was a rattlesnake. No; the reasoning is purely analogical; and I only wish
it to be inferred that _that_ nose, humped like a dromedary--prominent as
Cape Wrath--nobler than Caesar's, or the great captain's--had precisely the
same influence on me as the envenomed Python of the American woods has
upon the squirrel. It fascinated me--threw a spell over me--enchanted my
faculties--made me love to gaze upon what I abhorred, and think of nothing
but one feature--one nose, which nevertheless held a more prominent place
in the temple of my imagination, than Atlas, Andes, or Teneriffe, or even
the unscalable ridges of Himalaya, where Indra, the god of the elements,
is said to have placed his throne. Having meditated for some time in this
way, I found that it would never do. There was something inexpressibly
absurd in the mood which my mind was getting into, and I resolved to throw
off the incubus which oppressed me, and be like other people. Full of this
idea, I