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The nearsighted

When describing the appearance of a librarian in her novel Summer, Edith Wharton suggests that her librarian character has the "appealing look of the nearsighted".  The librarian is talking to a visitor who "was laughing with all of his teeth".
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It is true that we myopics do from time to time squint and fix our gaze a bit too long on others, especially when looking into their eyes--to the point of staring, perhaps--but what else can you do when it is hard to bring the world into focus and to keep the lines sharp and the colours from running.  We gain a lot of purchase on the present from the look in another's eye, and from its shape and from the shade it might theoretically match on the colour wheel.
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And we regret when we are shortsighted, whether nearsighted or not.
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And most unforgivable is seeing what isn't there, not even in the right circumstances!
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Still one can hope and from time to time glimpse the further shore.
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