“Then please give me that shirt.”
She proceeded to unfold it, and then put it over my head, smiling all the time.
“I will do the same for you at the first opportunity,” said I.
She blushed and answered, “It’s not nearly so far from you to me as it is from me to you.”
“Divine Hebe, that is beyond my understanding. You speak like the Cumaean sibyls, or as if you were rendering oracles at your temple in Corinth.”
“Had Hebe a temple at Corinth? Sardini never said so.”
“But Apollodorus says so. It was an asylum as well as a temple. But come back to the point, and pray do not elude it. What you said is opposed to all the laws of geometry. The distance from you to me ought to be precisely the same as from me to you.”
“Perhaps, then, I have said a stupid thing.”
“Not at all, Hebe, you have an idea which may be right or wrong, but I want to bring it out. Come, tell me.”
“Well, then, the two distances differ from each other with respect to the ascent and descent, or fall, if you like. Are not all bodies inclined to obey the laws of gravitation unless they are held back by a superior force?”