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. I d wrench them off her fingers, if they ever menaced me, he answered,brutally, when the door had closed after her. But what did you mean by teasingthe creature in that manner, Cathy? You were not speaking the truth, were you? I assure you I was, she returned. She has been dying for your sake severalweeks, and raving about you this morning, and pouring forth a deluge of abuse,because I represented your failings in a plain light, for the purpose of mitigatingher adoration.But don t notice it further: I wished to punish her sauciness,that s all.I like her too well, my dear Heathcliff, to let you absolutely seize anddevour her up. And I like her too ill to attempt it, said he, except in a very ghoulish fashion.You d hear of odd things if I lived alone with that mawkish, waxen face: the mostordinary would be painting on its white the colours of the rainbow, and turningthe blue eyes black, every day or two: they detestably resemble Linton s. Delectably! observed Catherine. They are dove s eyes angel s! She s her brother s heir, is she not? he asked, after a brief silence. I should be sorry to think so, returned his companion. Half a dozennephews shall erase her title, please heaven! Abstract your mind from the subjectat present: you are too prone to covet your neighbour s goods; remember thisneighbour s goods are mine. If they were mine, they would be none the less that, said Heathcliff; butthough Isabella Linton may be silly, she is scarcely mad; and, in short, we lldismiss the matter, as you advise.From their tongues they did dismiss it; and Catherine, probably, from herthoughts.The other, I felt certain, recalled it often in the course of the evening.I saw him smile to himself grin rather and lapse into ominous musing wheneverMrs.Linton had occasion to be absent from the apartment. I determined to watch his movements.My heart invariably cleaved to themaster s, in preference to Catherine s side: with reason I imagined, for he waskind, and trustful, and honourable; and she she could not be called opposite, yetshe seemed to allow herself such wide latitude, that I had little faith in herprinciples, and still less sympathy for her feelings.I wanted something to happenwhich might have the effect of freeing both Wuthering Heights and the Grangeof Mr.Heathcliff quietly; leaving us as we had been prior to his advent.His visitswere a continual nightmare to me; and, I suspected, to my master also.Hisabode at the Heights was an oppression past explaining.I felt that God hadforsaken the stray sheep there to its own wicked wanderings, and an evil beastprowled between it and the fold, waiting his time to spring and destroy.EbdE-BooksDirectory.com CHAPTER XISometimes, while meditating on these things in solitude, I ve got up in asudden terror, and put on my bonnet to go see how all was at the farm.I vepersuaded my conscience that it was a duty to warn him how people talkedregarding his ways; and then I ve recollected his confirmed bad habits, and,hopeless of benefiting him, have flinched from re-entering the dismal house,doubting if I could bear to be taken at my word.One time I passed the old gate, going out of my way, on a journey toGimmerton.It was about the period that my narrative has reached: a brightfrosty afternoon; the ground bare, and the road hard and dry.I came to a stonewhere the highway branches off on to the moor at your left hand; a rough sand-pillar, with the letters W.H.cut on its north side, on the east, G., and on thesouth-west, T.G.It serves as a guide-post to the Grange, the Heights, andvillage.The sun shone yellow on its grey head, reminding me of summer; and Icannot say why, but all at once a gush of child s sensations flowed into my heart.Hindley and I held it a favourite spot twenty years before.I gazed long at theweather-worn block; and, stooping down, perceived a hole near the bottom stillfull of snail-shells and pebbles, which we were fond of storing there with moreperishable things; and, as fresh as reality, it appeared that I beheld my earlyplaymate seated on the withered turf: his dark, square head bent forward, and hislittle hand scooping out the earth with a piece of slate. Poor Hindley! Iexclaimed, involuntarily.I started: my bodily eye was cheated into a momentarybelief that the child lifted its face and stared straight into mine! It vanished in atwinkling; but immediately I felt an irresistible yearning to be at the Heights
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