“Now comes the peg ‘whereon hangs a tale,’ and where my feeling resembled your own.  I felt I was to be miserable for the night—­at least so long as Miss Snooks favoured us with her company; and that she would favour us with it long enough was evident—­for I had a presentiment that she was a blue-stocking, and they always sit late.  Her gown was blue, so were her ribbons, so were her little twinkling eyes, and so was her nose—­at least at the point.  But there was no help for it.  I made up my mind to the worst, and allowed her to help me to a bit of fowl.  The landlord, and the two other guests supped on fried codlings.  She herself fastened upon a lobster’s claw.

“Meanwhile supper proceeded, and the clatter of knives and forks bore testimony that the process of mastication was going on swimmingly.  For some time I enjoyed it as much as the rest of the company, as I was rather hungry and the fowl excellent; but my enjoyment was of short duration—­for Mr. Hookey, the gentleman who sat opposite to me, on the left hand of Miss Snooks, asked me a question, and on looking up to answer it I saw—­not him, but the lady’s nose.  I speak advisedly:  there is no exaggeration in the case.  If any part of him was visible, it must have been his body.  His face was utterly hid by the tremendous feature which stood between us like an ‘envious shade,’ and intercepted all vision in that direction.  To get out of the influence of this ‘baleful planet’ I shifted my head aside, and so did he, and we thus got a sight of each other over its peak.  From that moment, all idea of eating was gone.  The nose stood at first literally between my friend and me—­and now it stood metaphorically between the fowl and my stomach.

“Unfortunately, Mr. Hookey, besides being a great talker, was a native of the same part of the country as myself, and having been absent from thence several years, was anxious to hear of any event and change that had taken place since he left it.  He accordingly bored me with questions which I could not but answer.  I could not answer them decently without raising my head—­and I could not raise my head without encountering the nose of Miss Snooks.

“But this was not the worst part of the business.  Miss Snooks took it into her head to put questions to me, and thus confronted me still more with her promontory.  There was no way of evading the annoyance, but by getting to the opposite side of the table—­a step which it was impossible to perform with any regard to decency; and I was thus compelled to ’kiss the rod,’ and put the best face I could upon the matter.

“Supper being removed, wine was introduced; and I had the honour of pouring out a glass of port to Miss Snooks.  She thanked me with an inclination of her head—­or rather of her nose—­and 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.