Morgan hadn't been entirely joking when he said he wanted to dye his hair white. Dr. Morgan had taken a liking to Hope's white hair, and there was something special about Hope beyond that, too.
Dr. Morgan felt that Hope was a special person. It was a gut feeling. He liked special people, and the face beneath Hope's unruly hair looked so young it was almost childish. Dr. Morgan was only twenty-seven himself, still young, and young people tended to like other young people. So he was happy to use the lecture as an excuse to chat with Hope.
On the other hand, Dr. Morgan had initially taken Hope for an ordinary visitor. "Special" was only relative, after all. As Miskatonic University's youngest associate professor, Dr. Morgan encountered special people all the time.
In that regard, Hope was no different from the outsiders who wandered in out of curiosity. As long as he didn't disrupt anyone else's learning, Dr. Morgan was happy to have one more person in the audience.
That was, until Dr. Morgan started talking about Belladonna.
Dr. Morgan had brought out Belladonna especially to liven up the class. This was a public lecture, and there was no need to go into too much depth.
So he didn't mention Belladonna's toxicity or its medicinal uses. Instead, he told a story: "Long ago, the noblewomen of the kingdom used to drip Belladonna juice into their eyes. That made their eyes look as though they were glowing."
Then, to keep the class engaged, he casually asked if anyone knew why people no longer used it...
Though he asked if "anyone knew," at first he looked straight at Hope as he spoke.
All he needed was for Hope to say he didn't know.
But halfway through, Dr. Morgan suddenly realized something