d instead o't."

Loud laughed the earl as Margaret unrolled the huge snowball before him;
and Thomas thought unto himself, "I said how it would be." But
Lauderdale, calling for his writing materials, sat down and wrote, and
he placed in the hands of Thomas a discharge, not only for his back
rent, but for all that should otherwise be due at the ensuing Martinmas.

Thomas Hardie bowed and bowed again before the earl, low and yet lower,
awkwardly and still more awkwardly, and he endeavoured to thank him, but
his tongue faltered in the performance of its office. He could have
taken his hand in his and wrung it fervently, leaving his fingers to
express what his tongue could not; but his laird was an earl, and there
was a necessary distance to be observed between an earl and a Lammermoor
farmer.

"Thank not me, goodman," said Lauderdale, "but thank the modesty and
discretion o' yer winsome wife."

Margaret was silent; but gratitude for the kindness which the earl had
shown unto her husband and herself took deep root in her heart.
Gratitude, indeed, formed the predominating principle in her character,
and fitted her even for acts of heroism.

The unexpected and unwonted generosity of the earl had enabled Thomas
Hardie to overcome the losses with which the fury of the seasons had
overwhelmed him, and he prospered beyond any farmer on the hills. But,
while he prospered, the Earl of Lauderdale, in his turn, was overtaken
by adversity. The stormy times of the civil wars raged, and it is well
known with what devotedness Lauderdale followed the fortunes of the
king. When the Commonwealth began, he was made prisoner, conveyed to
London, and confined in the Tower. There, nine years of captivity crept
slowly and gloomily over him; but they neither taught him mercy to
others nor to moderate his ambition, as was manifested when power and
prosperity again cast their beams upon him. But he now lingered in the
Tower, without prospect or hope of release, living upon the bare
sustenance of a prisoner, while his tenants dwelt on his estates, and
did as they pleased with his rents, as though they should not again
behold the face of a landlord.

But Midside Maggy grieved for the fate of him whose generosity had
brought prosperity, such as they had never known before, to herself and
to her husband; and, in the fulness of her gratitude, she was ever
planning schemes for his deliverance; and she urged upon her husband
that it was their duty