The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

5i6 The Highland Monthly
" If that blessed Professor would only leave and take
his daughter with him, I'll be hanged if I wouldn't stick to
Flo yet," he said aloud, as he sent the young tree, with a
vicious swing, crashing up against a stripling oak ;
bewitching me !"
" she's
It was altogether a new experience for Richard to be in
mental perturbation. But the attack was serious enough,
and the effect perfectly normal. He set out through the
wood at a wild pace, and, like other harassed people, who
try the remedy, found—delusively or real—the exercise
mentally refreshing. Perhaps he failed to notice the cir-
cumstance, or some mysterious Power may have taken the
use of his will for a time—hypnotism was a fact then as
now, though not scientifically recognised—but every step
he was taking carried him nearer The Hall. One thought
was being shuttled in his brain without his being able to
suggest an explanation :
" When I'm in her company Flo is nothing ; when I'm
not in her company Flo is something."
It was a coincidence, but. in the circumstances, not a
remarkable one, that at this very moment Miss Somerton
was also finding it necessary to have a meditative ramble
through the picturesque environs of The Hall. In the first
place, her father's behaviour, and, in particular, the witch's
midnight visit, were perplexing her greatly ; and, in the
second place, she was indefinitely conscious that something
unhappy was entering into her life. She loved her father,
and she was certain that his affection for her was as deep
and sincere as paternal love could be ; but there were some
things about him she had never been able to understand.
These mysteries had now become more perplexing than
ever; and perplexities they would have to remain she
knew, till time and events threw some light upon them,
because she never could muster up sufficient courage to ask
for explanations. Well she knew what the result would be
were she to do so : his eyes would look cruelly, scrutinizingly
at her, as he remarked :