doubted child," replied the old lady with a smile, "but go
young creature, take your way; I believe ere yet you have done, that
you, with your sunny smile, will cheat me into contentment before
I know what I am about; but mind, my lovely one," she added, "I
will tell you how it is. I have been led to see how God in his
displeasure,--displeasure, I say, on account of the pride of ancestry
and station, which I have hitherto persisted in cherishing,--how God, I
repeat, in his displeasure has remembered mercy, and, in taking away
that which is worthless, has left me that which is most precious, even
you my bright one."

The old lady then kissed Tamar, and gave her the permission she
required, to arrange the cottage according to her own fancy. When the
day of removal actually arrived, being the day after the Laird had
walked himself off, the neighbours, with Shanty at their head, came
to assist.

Tamar had determined upon having the room within the kitchen, for her
beloved father by adoption; a village artist having understood her pious
wish, had stained the walls of light grey, and painted the frame of the
casement window of the same colour. Tamar had prepared a curtain of some
light drapery for the window; a well-darned carpet covered the floor,
the Laird's bookcases occupied one entire end of the room opposite the
window, the wonted table of the old study at the Tower was placed in the
centre of the floor, and was covered with its usual cloth, a somewhat
tarnished baize, with a border worked in crewels by Mrs. Margaret in
days gone by. In the centre of this table the inkstand was placed, and
on the opposite wall, a venerable time-piece, asserted, with what truth
we presume not to say, to be nearly as old as the clock sent by Haroun
Al Raschid to the emperor Charlemagne. A few high-backed chairs, certain
strange chimney ornaments, and other little matters dear to the Laird,
finished the furniture of this room, and Tamar perfectly laughed with
joy, when, having seen all done, she became aware that this small
apartment was in fact more comfortable than the cold, wide, many-drafted
study in the Tower.

Those who were with her caught the merry infection and laughed too, and
Shanty said, "But dear one, whilst you thus rejoice in your own
contrivances, have you not a word of praise to give to Him, who has
spread such glories as no human skill could create, beyond yon little
window?" The old man then opened the casement, and s