We two enjoyed the fun of it so
much, that we did our best to increase the confusions resulting from our
resemblance. We did not lie, but we dodged and pretended, questioned and
looked mysterious, till I verily believe the person concerned, having in
himself so vague an idea of our individuality, not unfrequently forgot
which he had blamed, or which he had wanted, and became hopelessly
muddled.
"A man might well have started the question what good could lie in the
existence of a duality in which the appearance was, if not exactly, yet
so nearly identical, that no one but my brother or myself could have
pointed out definite differences; but it could have been started only by
an outsider: my brother and I had no doubt concerning the advantage of a
duality in which each was the other's double; the fact was to us a never
ceasing source of delight. Each seemed to the other created such,
expressly that he might love him as a special, individual property of his
own. It was as if the image of Narcissus had risen bodily out of the
watery mirror, to be what it had before but seemed. It was as if we had
been made two, that each might love himself, and yet not be selfish.
"We were almost always together, but sometimes we got into individual
scrapes, when--which will appear to some incredible--the one accused
always accepted punishment without denial or subterfuge or attempt to
perplex: it was all one which was the culprit, and which should be the
sufferer.
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