But when I came to ask them I found they had really no proof of this unavoidable repetition in things except the fact that the things were repeated.

Now, the mere repetition made the things to me rather more weird than more rational.

It was as if, having seen a curiously shaped nose in the street and dismissed it as an accident, I had then seen six other noses of the same astonishing shape.

I should have fancied for a moment that it must be some local secret society.

So one elephant having a trunk was odd; but all elephants having trunks looked like a plot.