But he's a laird, an' some lairds is better nor 'maist ony lords--an' HE'S Warlock o' Glenwarlock--at least he wull be--an' may it be lang or come the day." Hard as the snow was packed in them, all the eight hoofs were now cleared out with Cosmo's busy knife, which he had had to use carefully lest he should hurt the frog.

The next moment his head appeared, a little behind that of Aggie, and in the light of the lamp the lady saw the handsome face of a lad seemingly about sixteen.
"Here he is, mem! This is the yoong laird.

Ye speir at HIM what ye're to du, and du jist as he tells ye," said Aggie, and drew back, that Cosmo might take her place.
"Is that girl your sister ?" asked the lady, with not a little abruptness, for the _best bred_ are not always the most polite.
"No, my lady," answered Cosmo, who had learned from the lad on the box her name and rank; "she is the daughter of one of my father's tenants." Lady Joan Scudamore thought it very odd that the youth should be on such familiar terms with the daughter of one of his father's tenants--out alone with her in the heart of a hideous storm! No doubt the girl looked up to him, but apparently from the same level, as one sharing in the pride of the family! Should she take her advice, and seek his?
or should she press on for Howglen?
There was, alas! no counsel to be had from her father just at present: if she woke him, he would but mutter something not so much unlike an oath as it ought to be, and go to sleep again! "We want very much to reach Howglen--I think that is what you call the place," she said.
"You can't get there to-night, I'm afraid," returned Cosmo.

"The road is, as you see, no road at all.

The horses would do better if you took their shoes off, I think--only then, if they came on a bit of frozen dub, it might knock their hoofs to pieces in, such a frost." The lady glanced round at her sleeping companion with a look expressive of no small perplexity.
"My father will make you welcome, my lady," continued Cosmo, "if you will come with us.