St. Landry democrat., 1893-03-18
PROF. MORGAN'S ROM ANCE.
BY KATE LEE.

Professor Morgan was an antiquarian
and archaologist. He loved things tha
were old and things that had been lon.
dead, and passed all his days among
bones and stones and ponderous books
Nothing fresh and living played an,
part in his life, and he persistently with
drew himself from intercourse will
his fellows. His prematurely bald head
his large bumpy forehead and the stuCli
Gus stoop Of his shoulders made him ap
pear much older than he really was, anG
superficial observers imagined him to be
as hard and as incapable of emotion as
one of his own fossils. 1t was rare
thing for any one to get a look from the
gray eyes half hidden under the prom
lnent brows. To those who by chance
did obtain full, direct glance from
them, and who had the wit to read them
Alright, they were a revelation of the man.
They were eyes that spoke, and the in
tcnslty of expression concentrated in
them gave the lie to his otherwise
emotionless aspect. The Professor was,
| in fact, no fossil His heart could beat
warm and quick, and romance lay
hidden under his outer husk of hardness
and reserve.
Ten years ago, Hugh Morgan, solitary.
unknown, embittered in spirit and
broken of heart, had come from abroad
and taken up his residence in lonely
house fronting the sea on the outskirts
OF Welsh scacoast village. It seemed
an abode as congenial as possibly could
De found. The neighborhood for many
miles round abounded in antiquarian re-
! mains, and the house itself looked out on
the Atlantic for three centuries or more.
an isolated house and an isolated life.
A house with story to TELL could it but
speak, human life with hidden un
told past. Those were the parallels
Hugh Morgan drew between himself and
his chosen home, feeling drcarv sort of
klnshl p with it, and half Imagining
sometimes that it possessed a human
soul, soul that was as sad in its loneli
ness as he in his. Here year after wear
ne lived in solitude, devoted apparently
10 science alone, the man to all outward
appearances merged in the ANTIQUARIAN,
HIS tall figure, surmounted by a broad |
brlmmed hat drawn low over his capac-
lous brow, became we'll known to all !
the inhabitants of the village and the |
nelghborhood around Now and then it
would te missed for six months or more |
at time, when "Thc Professor as he
came to bc called long before the title
was his In reality, had found occasion to
return abroad for scientific nurposes
But, as rule, it was to be met with
every day. eth r pacing thouchtfully
pesl"c the wide sea, or passing rapidly
across the green waste behind the strac-
CHING village, on the way to the moun-
tains beyond.
lhe years went by. Professor Nor
gan became shining light in the world
OF archaeological science; but each wear
as 1t passed seemed to bind him down
more and more irrevoCably to solitude of
heart. The stunning of all companion-
snip, which at first had been but the in
stlnct OF wounded and sensitive spirit.
became at length a fixed habit, which he
was too shy and reserved to break
through. Each year increased the stoop
OF the Professors shoulders the bald
ness OF his head, and the terrific dcveIop-
ment OF his forehead. Each year tie
sad, shy eyes grew sadder and SILVER and
were more and more rarely lifted to
meet the undiscerning, unperceptive
eyes OF others. Little did anyone divine
what bitter hours of heart loneliness the
unsocial Professor passed
IN the grim, museum-like study of his ,
lonely house, Or what painful thoughts, t
quite unconnected with barrows and /.
,romlechs and Druid circles, were his {
1ally companions. {
One August day the Professor made {
Journey miles away among the mountains q
or the purpose of taking observations of =;
famous cromlech. He had been .for !
Wo years at work upon a history of ]
'romiechs, and was at this time gather J
ng material for chapter on the differ-1 $
noes between British cromlcchs and 7
nose OF the nations of Gcrmanc de- G
cent. The journey took him all the
norning, and when he came within SIGHT a
# the village on his return the afternoon r.
un was blazing at its hottest. About +
lille and half from the village the road 7
assed through a rough field, in the
1dst of which, on a slight elevation. o
TODD the ruins of an ancient British c.
ouse. h
10 any but an antiquary the house had p
1e appearance of being nothing more Il
IAN shapeless heap of stones. The V
rofessor had theory of his own con- c]
'rning its origin and history; and in c>
nded one day writing magazine arti- al
G about it by way of recreation from m
IS laborious and exhaustive work on the ii
omlechs. n,
As he drew near the ruin to-day he
w coming toward it, from the direc CT
on of the village, in the hot glare of "
e sun, two tiny figures in black dresses yt
I'd white sun bonnets. Between them
ey bore hamper, from which a yellow su
t raised its head and gazed around WI
lth 1nqulrlng eyes. The little faces be- tn
ath the sun bonnets were crimson with P]
at and haste, and, as soon as they tlt
ached the foot of the mound on which co
e ruin stood, the two little travellers q
it down their burden, and sank beside wi
painting with fatigue. ha
Ihe Professors interest was transferred sn
'm the ruin to the c'srming picture in
a8S s4sNs