The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

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EDITED BY
DUNCAN CAMPBELL, Editor, "Northern Chronicle,
ALEXANDER ^LVCBAIN, M.A., F.S.A.Scox.
No. 45. DECEMBER, 1892. Vol. IV.
A STRANGE REVENGE.
By D. Nairxe,
CHAPTER Vn.
CAUGHT IX THE NET.
THE man has never lived, however rollicking and happygo-lucky
his disposition may be, who has not at some
period of his life been coerced by circumstances into a vein
of sedate reflection. Richard Stuart, as has been indicated
in the progress of this story, was almost the exact mental
antithesis of his brother. We say almost, because the love
complications which had now arisen unexpectedly, proved
that while in ordinary affairs he was studious and calculat-
ing, he had about him a dash of that impulsiveness which
was among Richard's most pointed characteristics. The
New Testament exhortation, " To eat, to drink, and to be
merry," he half unconsciously interpreted as a semi-divine,
injunction to frivolously and selfishly enjoy the world while
he was in it. His environments, fortunately, he considered,
had so far fitted in with that easy-going principle. And
yet he was not wicked, at least as wickedness had come
to be defined outside the Parish Kirk.
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