We have all more or less witnessed this phenomenon of transformation in
some familiar aspect, either through love or hatred, respect or
contempt, fear or admiration, until we find ourselves marveling at past
impressions, received, in ignorance of the truth, in the commencement of
our observations.
I remember that Mr. La Vigne struck me on that occasion as a superficial
man in every way, but kindly, courteous, and vivacious, though certainly
eccentric and somewhat absurd. One would have supposed him even a
flippant, whimsical person, seen casually; but, on later examination,
the droop of his eyelids and under lip, and the depressed corners of his
mouth, gave to the close observer a surer indication of his character.
The shape of his narrow, conical, and somewhat elegantly-placed head,
denoted an inclination to fanaticism, which had been skillfully combated
by a perfectly skeptical education, so as to turn this stream of
character into strange channels.
Hobbyism was his infirmity, perhaps, and he was essentially a man of one
idea at a time. The word "odd" applied to him peculiarly, which is in
itself a sort of social ostracism when attached to any one, and raises a
barrier at once between a man and his fellow-bipeds that not even
superiority could surmount.
He was emphatically a tawny man as to coloring--hair, skin, and eyes,
being all pretty much of the same hue of "the ribbed sea-sands.
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