THE rainy night had ushered in a misty morning - half frost, halfdrizzle - and temporary brooks crossed our path - gurgling from theuplands. My feet were thoroughly wetted; I was cross and low;exactly the humour suited for making the most of these disagreeablethings. We entered the farm-house by the kitchen way, to ascertainwhether Mr. Heathcliff were really absent: because I put slightfaith in his own affirmation.

Joseph seemed sitting in a sort of elysium alone, beside a roaringfire; a quart of ale on the table near him, bristling with largepieces of toasted oat-cake; and his black, short pipe in his mouth.Catherine ran to the hearth to warm herself. I asked if the masterwas in? My question remained so long unanswered, that I thoughtthe old man had grown deaf, and repeated it louder.

'Na - ay!' he snarled, or rather screamed through his nose. 'Na -ay! yah muh goa back whear yah coom frough.'

'Joseph!' cried a peevish voice, simultaneously with me, from theinner room. 'How often am I to call you? There are only a few redashes now. Joseph! come this moment.'

Vigorous puffs, and a resolute stare into the grate, declared hehad no ear for this appeal. The housekeeper and Hareton wereinvisible; one gone on an errand, and the other at his work,probably. We knew Linton's tones, and entered.

'Oh, I hope you'll die in a garret, starved to death!' said theboy, mistaking our approach for that of his negligent attendant.

He stopped on observing his error: his cousin flew to him.

'Is that you, Miss Linton?' he said, raising his head from the armof the great chair, in which he reclined. 'No - don't kiss me: ittakes my breath. Dear me! Papa said you would call,' continuedhe, after recovering a little from Catherine's embrace; while shestood by looking very contrite. 'Will you shut the door, if youplease? you left it open; and those - those DETESTABLE creatureswon't bring coals to the fire. It's so cold!'

I stirred up the cinders, and fetched a scuttleful myself. Theinvalid complained of being covered with ashes; but he had atiresome cough, and looked feverish and ill, so I did not rebukehis temper.

'Well, Linton,' murmured Catherine, when his corrugated browrelaxed, 'are you glad to see me? Can I do you any good?'

'Why didn't you come before?' he asked. 'You should have come,instead of writing. It tired me dreadfully writing those longletters. I'd far rather have talked to you. Now, I can neitherbear to talk, nor anything else. I wonder where Zillah is! Willyou' (looking at me) 'step into the kitchen and see?'

I had received no thanks for my other service; and being unwillingto run to and fro at his behest, I replied - 'Nobody is out therebut Joseph.'

'I want to drink,' he exclaimed fretfully, turning away. 'Zillahis constantly gadding off to Gimmerton since papa went: it'smiserable! And I'm obliged to come down here - they resolved neverto hear me up-stairs.'

'Is your father attentive to you, Master Heathcliff?' I asked,perceiving Catherine to be checked in her friendly advances.

'Attentive? He makes them a little more attentive at least,' hecried. 'The wretches! Do you know, Miss Linton, that bruteHareton laughs at me! I hate him! indeed, I hate them all: theyare odious beings.'

Cathy began searching for some water; she lighted on a pitcher inthe dresser, filled a tumbler, and brought it. He bid her add aspoonful of wine from a bottle on the table; and having swallowed asmall portion, appeared more tranquil, and said she was very kind.

'And are you glad to see me?' asked she, reiterating her formerquestion and pleased to detect the faint dawn of a smile.

'Yes, I am. It's something new to hear a voice like yours!' hereplied. 'But I have been vexed, because you wouldn't come. Andpapa swore it was owing to me: he called me a pitiful, shuffling,worthless thing; and said you despised me; and if he had been in myplace, he would be more the master of the Grange than your fatherby this time. But you don't despise me, do you, Miss - ?'

'I wish you would say Catherine, or Cathy,' interrupted my younglady. 'Despise you? No! Next to papa and Ellen, I love youbetter than anybody living. I don't love Mr. Heathcliff, though;and I dare not come when he returns: will he stay away many days?'

'Not many,' answered Linton; 'but he goes on to the moorsfrequently, since the shooting season commenced; and you mightspend an hour or two with me in his absence. Do say you will. Ithink I should not be peevish with you: you'd not provoke me, andyou'd always be ready to help me, wouldn't you?'

'Yes" said Catherine, stroking his long soft hair: 'if I couldonly get papa's consent, I'd spend half my time with you. PrettyLinton! I wish you were my brother.'

'And then you would like me as well as your father?' observed he,more cheerfully. 'But papa says you would love me better than himand all the world, if you were my wife; so I'd rather you werethat.'

'No, I should never love anybody better than papa,' she returnedgravely. 'And people hate their wives, sometimes; but not theirsisters and brothers: and if you were the latter, you would livewith us, and papa would be as fond of you as he is of me.'

Linton denied that people ever hated their wives; but Cathyaffirmed they did, and, in her wisdom, instanced his own father'saversion to her aunt. I endeavoured to stop her thoughtlesstongue. I couldn't succeed till everything she knew was out.Master Heathcliff, much irritated, asserted her relation was false.

'Papa told me; and papa does not tell falsehoods,' she answeredpertly.

'MY papa scorns yours!' cried Linton. 'He calls him a sneakingfool.'

'Yours is a wicked man,' retorted Catherine; 'and you are verynaughty to dare to repeat what he says. He must be wicked to havemade Aunt Isabella leave him as she did.'

'She didn't leave him,' said the boy; 'you sha'n't contradict me.'

'She did,' cried my young lady.

'Well, I'll tell you something!' said Linton. 'Your mother hatedyour father: now then.'

'Oh!' exclaimed Catherine, too enraged to continue.

'And she loved mine,' added he.

'You little liar! I hate you now!' she panted, and her face grewred with passion.

'She did! she did!' sang Linton, sinking into the recess of hischair, and leaning back his head to enjoy the agitation of theother disputant, who stood behind.

'Hush, Master Heathcliff!' I said; 'that's your father's tale, too,I suppose.'

'It isn't: you hold your tongue!' he answered. 'She did, she did,Catherine! she did, she did!'

Cathy, beside herself, gave the chair a violent push, and causedhim to fall against one arm. He was immediately seized by asuffocating cough that soon ended his triumph. It lasted so longthat it frightened even me. As to his cousin, she wept with allher might, aghast at the mischief she had done: though she saidnothing. I held him till the fit exhausted itself. Then he thrustme away, and leant his head down silently. Catherine quelled herlamentations also, took a seat opposite, and looked solemnly intothe fire.

'How do you feel now, Master Heathcliff?' I inquired, after waitingten minutes.

'I wish SHE felt as I do,' he replied: 'spiteful, cruel thing!Hareton never touches me: he never struck me in his life. And Iwas better to-day: and there - ' his voice died in a whimper.

'I didn't strike you!' muttered Cathy, chewing her lip to preventanother burst of emotion.

He sighed and moaned like one under great suffering, and kept it upfor a quarter of an hour; on purpose to distress his cousinapparently, for whenever he caught a stifled sob from her he putrenewed pain and pathos into the inflexions of his voice.

'I'm sorry I hurt you, Linton,' she said at length, racked beyondendurance. 'But I couldn't have been hurt by that little push, andI had no idea that you could, either: you're not much, are you,Linton? Don't let me go home thinking I've done you harm. Answer!speak to me.'

'I can't speak to you,' he murmured; 'you've hurt me so that Ishall lie awake all night choking with this cough. If you had ityou'd know what it was; but YOU'LL be comfortably asleep while I'min agony, and nobody near me. I wonder how you would like to passthose fearful nights!' And he began to wail aloud, for very pityof himself.

'Since you are in the habit of passing dreadful nights,' I said,'it won't be Miss who spoils your ease: you'd be the same had shenever come. However, she shall not disturb you again; and perhapsyou'll get quieter when we leave you.'

'Must I go?' asked Catherine dolefully, bending over him. 'Do youwant me to go, Linton?'

'You can't alter what you've done,' he replied pettishly, shrinkingfrom her, 'unless you alter it for the worse by teasing me into afever.'

'Well, then, I must go?' she repeated.

'Let me alone, at least,' said he; 'I can't bear your talking.'

She lingered, and resisted my persuasions to departure a tiresomewhile; but as he neither looked up nor spoke, she finally made amovement to the door, and I followed. We were recalled by ascream. Linton had slid from his seat on to the hearthstone, andlay writhing in the mere perverseness of an indulged plague of achild, determined to be as grievous and harassing as it can. Ithoroughly gauged his disposition from his behaviour, and saw atonce it would be folly to attempt humouring him. Not so mycompanion: she ran back in terror, knelt down, and cried, andsoothed, and entreated, till he grew quiet from lack of breath: byno means from compunction at distressing her.

'I shall lift him on to the settle,' I said, 'and he may roll aboutas he pleases: we can't stop to watch him. I hope you aresatisfied, Miss Cathy, that you are not the person to benefit him;and that his condition of health is not occasioned by attachment toyou. Now, then, there he is! Come away: as soon as he knowsthere is nobody by to care for his nonsense, he'll be glad to liestill.'

She placed a cushion under his head, and offered him some water; herejected the latter, and tossed uneasily on the former, as if itwere a stone or a block of wood. She tried to put it morecomfortably.

'I can't do with that,' he said; 'it's not high enough.'

Catherine brought another to lay above it.

'That's too high,' murmured the provoking thing.

'How must I arrange it, then?' she asked despairingly.

He twined himself up to her, as she half knelt by the settle, andconverted her shoulder into a support.

'No, that won't do,' I said. 'You'll be content with the cushion,Master Heathcliff. Miss has wasted too much time on you already:we cannot remain five minutes longer.'

'Yes, yes, we can!' replied Cathy. 'He's good and patient now.He's beginning to think I shall have far greater misery than hewill to-night, if I believe he is the worse for my visit: and thenI dare not come again. Tell the truth about it, Linton; for Imusn't come, if I have hurt you.'

'You must come, to cure me,' he answered. 'You ought to come,because you have hurt me: you know you have extremely! I was notas ill when you entered as I am at present - was I?'

'But you've made yourself ill by crying and being in a passion. - Ididn't do it all,' said his cousin. 'However, we'll be friendsnow. And you want me: you would wish to see me sometimes,really?'

'I told you I did,' he replied impatiently. 'Sit on the settle andlet me lean on your knee. That's as mamma used to do, wholeafternoons together. Sit quite still and don't talk: but you maysing a song, if you can sing; or you may say a nice longinteresting ballad - one of those you promised to teach me; or astory. I'd rather have a ballad, though: begin.'

Catherine repeated the longest she could remember. The employmentpleased both mightily. Linton would have another, and after thatanother, notwithstanding my strenuous objections; and so they wenton until the clock struck twelve, and we heard Hareton in thecourt, returning for his dinner.

'And to-morrow, Catherine, will you be here to-morrow?' asked youngHeathcliff, holding her frock as she rose reluctantly.

'No,' I answered, 'nor next day neither.' She, however, gave adifferent response evidently, for his forehead cleared as shestooped and whispered in his ear.

'You won't go to-morrow, recollect, Miss!' I commenced, when wewere out of the house. 'You are not dreaming of it, are you?'

She smiled.

'Oh, I'll take good care,' I continued: 'I'll have that lockmended, and you can escape by no way else.'

'I can get over the wall,' she said laughing. 'The Grange is not aprison, Ellen, and you are not my gaoler. And besides, I'm almostseventeen: I'm a woman. And I'm certain Linton would recoverquickly if he had me to look after him. I'm older than he is, youknow, and wiser: less childish, am I not? And he'll soon do as Idirect him, with some slight coaxing. He's a pretty little darlingwhen he's good. I'd make such a pet of him, if he were mine. Weshould, never quarrel, should we after we were used to each other?Don't you like him, Ellen?'

'Like him!' I exclaimed. 'The worst-tempered bit of a sickly slipthat ever struggled into its teens. Happily, as Mr. Heathcliffconjectured, he'll not win twenty. I doubt whether he'll seespring, indeed. And small loss to his family whenever he dropsoff. And lucky it is for us that his father took him: the kinderhe was treated, the more tedious and selfish he'd be. I'm glad youhave no chance of having him for a husband, Miss Catherine.'

My companion waxed serious at hearing this speech. To speak of hisdeath so regardlessly wounded her feelings.

'He's younger than I,' she answered, after a protracted pause ofmeditation, 'and he ought to live the longest: he will - he mustlive as long as I do. He's as strong now as when he first cameinto the north; I'm positive of that. It's only a cold that ailshim, the same as papa has. You say papa will get better, and whyshouldn't he?'

'Well, well,' I cried, 'after all, we needn't trouble ourselves;for listen, Miss, - and mind, I'll keep my word, - if you attemptgoing to Wuthering Heights again, with or without me, I shallinform Mr. Linton, and, unless he allow it, the intimacy with yourcousin must not be revived.'

'It has been revived,' muttered Cathy, sulkily.

'Must not be continued, then,' I said.

'We'll see,' was her reply, and she set off at a gallop, leaving meto toil in the rear.

We both reached home before our dinner-time; my master supposed wehad been wandering through the park, and therefore he demanded noexplanation of our absence. As soon as I entered I hastened tochange my soaked shoes and stockings; but sitting such awhile atthe Heights had done the mischief. On the succeeding morning I waslaid up, and during three weeks I remained incapacitated forattending to my duties: a calamity never experienced prior to thatperiod, and never, I am thankful to say, since.

My little mistress behaved like an angel in coming to wait on me,and cheer my solitude; the confinement brought me exceedingly low.It is wearisome, to a stirring active body: but few have slighterreasons for complaint than I had. The moment Catherine left Mr.Linton's room she appeared at my bedside. Her day was dividedbetween us; no amusement usurped a minute: she neglected hermeals, her studies, and her play; and she was the fondest nursethat ever watched. She must have had a warm heart, when she lovedher father so, to give so much to me. I said her days were dividedbetween us; but the master retired early, and I generally needednothing after six o'clock, thus the evening was her own. Poorthing! I never considered what she did with herself after tea.And though frequently, when she looked in to bid me good-night, Iremarked a fresh colour in her cheeks and a pinkness over herslender fingers, instead of fancying the line borrowed from a coldride across the moors, I laid it to the charge of a hot fire in thelibrary.