The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

Zhc Dioblanb fUbontbl^.
EDITED BV
DUNCAN CAMPBELL, Editor, "Northern Chronicle,
AND
ALEXANDER MACBAIN, M.A., F.S.A.Scot.
No. 44. NOVEMBER, 1892. Vol. IV.
A STRANGE REVENGE.
By D. Nairne.
CHAPTER V.
IX WHICH THE PROFESSOR BECOMES PHILOSOPHICAL.
GRAND revenge!—a grand revenge! And very
A
ingenious, too—very ingenious."
The speaker was Professor Somerton, tenant of the
Hall ; and he addressed these strange remarks to himself
within the privacy of his study. It was evident that the
Professor had concluded a very satisfactory train of thought,
but though his eyes twinkled, an impartial observer would
not at this moment—or perhaps at any other moment,
equally auspicious—have pronounced him a man that was
happy. There is a class of human beings upon whom
happiness sits as awkwardly as an ill-made suit of clothes,
on a modern Adonis. " Virtue alone is happiness," said the
ever-wise Pope ;
t'lat element.
and, maybe, the Professor's sunshine lacked
Professor Somerton's was not a personality that fasci-
nated or even pleased one on the first blush of acquaintance-
ship ; nor had his manner that redeeming quality of charm,
by which Nature occasionally makes reparation for her
other neglects. He was tall in comparison with the
29