If we were blind, we should be abundantly pitied, but
as we are only half-blind, such comments as these are all the
consolation we get. "Oh! _near-sighted_, is she? Yes, it is very
fashionable now-a-days for young ladies to carry eye-glasses, and call
themselves near-sighted!" Or, "Pooh! It's all affectation. She can see
as well as any body, if she chooses. She thinks it is pretty to half
shut her eyes, and cut her acquaintances." I meet my friend A----,
some morning, who returns my salutation with cold politeness, and
says, "How cleverly you managed to cut me at the concert last night!"
"At the concert! I did not see you." "O no! You could see well enough
to bow to pretty Miss B----, and her handsome cousin; but as for
seeing your old schoolmate, two seats behind her,--of course you are
too near-sighted!" In vain I protest that I could not see her,--that
three yards is a great distance to my eyes. She leaves me with an
incredulous smile, and that most provoking phrase, "O yes! I _suppose_
so!" and distrusts me ever afterwards. Alas! we see just enough to
seal our own condemnation.
Who is free from this malady? As I look around in society, I see
staring glassy ellipses on every side "in the place where eyes ought
to grow,"--and perhaps most of the unfortunate owls get along very
comfortably with their artificial eyes.
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