Excerpt from The Riddle of the Ruthvens and Other StudiesFor my subjects, I have followed perhaps too much the direction of my own taste, except in one instance suggested to me by Mr. Andrew Lang, and others may not deem my choice commendable. Necessarily they vary in interest and value, but as was well observed of them in this connection by a generous critic (now, alas! No more): I recognise of course that you can make your nosegay but of the ¿owers kindly Nature does suffer to meet your searching eye. The exception above noted is the paper on the Master of Sinclair, which further differs from its companions in that it is reprinted from the Scottish Historical Review, by courteous permission of the editor.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.