Besides, Thomas's mind was a rendezvous for all extremes.

In him they met, and showed that they met by fighting all day long.

If you knocked at his inner door, you never could tell what would open it to you--all depending on what happened to be _uppermost_ in the wrestle.
The candle was brought and set on the table, showing two or three geranium plants in the window.

Why her eyes should have fixed upon these, Annie tried to discover afterwards, when she was more used to thinking.

But she could not tell, except it were that they were so scraggy and wretched, half drowned in the darkness, and half blanched by the miserable light, and therefore must have been very like her own feelings, as she stood before the ungentle but not unkind stone-mason.
"Weel, lassie," said he, when Jean had retired, "what do ye want wi' me ?" Annie burst into tears again.
"Jean, gae butt the hoose direckly," cried Thomas, on the mere chance of his attendant having lingered at the door.