" "Nor are they any," said I;
"but what makes you think that the stranger is a Woman?
I see by my power of Sight Recognition --"
"Oh, I have no patience with your Sight Recognition," replied she,
"`Feeling is believing' and `A Straight Line to the touch is worth
a Circle to the sight'"--two Proverbs, very common with the Frailer
Sex in Flatland.
"Well," said I, for I was afraid of irritating her, "if it must be so,
demand an introduction." Assuming her most gracious manner, my Wife
advanced towards the Stranger, "Permit me, Madam to feel and be felt by--"
then, suddenly recoiling, "Oh! it is not a Woman, and there are no angles
either, not a trace of one. Can it be that I have so misbehaved
to a perfect Circle?"
"I am indeed, in a certain sense a Circle," replied the Voice,
"and a more perfect Circle than any in Flatland; but to speak more
accurately, I am many Circles in one." Then he added more mildly,
"I have a message, dear Madam, to your husband, which I must not
deliver in your presence; and, if you would suffer us to retire
for a few minutes --" But my wife would not listen to the proposal
that our august Visitor should so incommode himself, and assuring
the Circle that the hour of her own retirement had long passed,
with many reiterated apologies for her recent indiscretion,
she at last retreated to her apartment.
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