...kisses to spare, give 
them to Linton: they are thrown away on me.' 
'Naughty Ellen!' exclaimed Catherine, flying to attack me next with 
her lavish caresses. 'Wicked Ellen! to try to hinder me from 
entering. But I'll take this walk every morning in future: may I, 
uncle? and sometimes bring papa. Won't you be glad to see us?' 
'Of course,' replied the uncle, with a hardly suppressed grimace, 
resulting from his deep aversion to both the proposed visitors. 
'But stay,' he continued, turning towards the young lady. 'Now I 
think of it, I'd better tell you. Mr. Linton has a prejudice 
against me: we quarrelled at one time of our lives, with 
unchristian ferocity; and, if you mention coming here to him, he'll 
put a veto on your visits altogether. Therefore, you must not 
mention it, unless you be careless of seeing your cousin hereafter: 
you may come, if you will, but you must not mention it.' 
'Why did you quarrel?' asked Catherine, considerably crestfallen. 
'He thought me too poor to wed his sister,' answered Heathcliff, 
'and was grieved that I got her: his pride was hurt, and he'll 
never forgive it.' 
'That's wrong!' said the young lady: 'some time I'll tell him so. 
But Linton and I have no share in your quarrel. I'll not come 
here, then; he shall come to the Grange.' 
'It will be too far for me,' murmured her cousin: 'to walk four 
miles would kill me. No, come here, Miss Catherine, now and then: 
not every morning, but once or twice a week.' 
The father launched towards his son a glance of bitter contempt. 
'I am afraid, Nelly, I shall lose my labour,' he muttered to me. 
'Miss Catherine, as the ninny calls her, will discover his value, 
and send him to the devil. Now, if it had been Hareton! - Do you 
know that, twenty times a day, I covet Hareton, with all his 
degradation? I'd have loved the lad had he been some one else. 
But I think he's safe from HER love. I'll pit him against that 
paltry creature, unless it bestir itself briskly. We calculate it 
will scarcely last till it is eighteen. Oh, confound the vapid 
thing! He's absorbed in drying his feet, and never looks at her. - 
Linton!' 
'Yes, father,' answered the boy. 
'Have you nothing to show your cousin anywhere about, not even a 
rabbit or a weasel's nest? Take her into the garden, before you 
change your shoes; and into the stable to see your horse.' 
'Wouldn't you rather sit here?' asked Linton, addressing Cathy in a 
tone which expressed reluctance to move again. 
'I don't know,' she replied, casting a longing look to the door, 
and evidently eager to be active. 
He kept his seat, and shrank closer to the fire. Heathcliff rose, 
and went into the kitchen, and from thence to the yard, calling out 
for Hareton. Hareton responded, and presently the two re-entered. 
The young man had been washing himself, as was visible by the glow 
on his cheeks and his wetted hair. 
'Oh, I'll ask YOU, uncle,' cried Miss Cathy, recollecting the 
housekeeper's assertion. 'That is not my cousin, is he?' 
'Yes,' he, replied, 'your mother's nephew. Don't you like him!' 
Catherine looked queer. 
'Is he not a handsome lad?' he continued. 
The uncivil little thing stood on tiptoe, and whispered a sentence 
in Heathcliff's ear. He laughed; Hareton darkened: I perceived he 
was very sensitive to suspected slights, and had obviously a dim 
notion of his inferiority. But his master or guardian chased the 
frown by exclaiming - 
'You'll be the favourite among us, Hareton! She says you are aare a - 
What was it? Well, something very flattering. Here! you go with 
her round the farm. And behave like a gentleman, mind! Don't use 
any bad words; and don't stare when the young lady is not looking 
at you, and be ready to hide your face when she is; and, when you 
speak, say your words slowly, and keep your hands out of your 
pockets. Be off, and entertain her as nicely as you can.' 
He watched the couple walking past the window. Earnshaw had his 
countenance completely averted from his companion. He seemed 
studying the familiar landscape with a stranger's and an artist's 
interest. Catherine took a sly look at him, expressing small 
admiration. She then turned her attention to seeking out objects 
of amusement for herself, and tripped merrily on, lilting a tune to 
supply the lack of conversation. 
'I've tied his tongue,' observed Heathcliff. 'He'll not venture a 
single syllable all the time! Nelly, you recollect meat his age - 
nay, some years younger. Did I ever look so stupid: so 
"gaumless," as Joseph calls it?' 
'Worse,' I replied, 'because more sullen with it.' 
'I've a pleasure in him,' he continued, reflecting aloud. 'He has 
satisfied my expectations. If he were a born fool I should not 
enjoy it half so much. But he's no fool; and I can sympathise with 
all his feelings, having felt them myself. I know what he suffers 
now, for instance, exactly: it is merely a beginning of what he 
shall suffer, though. And he'll never be able to emerge from his 
bathos of coarseness and ignorance. I've got him faster than his 
scoundrel of a father secured me, and lower; for he takes a pride 
in his brutishness. I've taught him to scorn everything extra- 
animal as silly and weak. Don't you think Hindley would be proud 
of his son, if he could see him? almost as proud as I am of mine. 
But there's this difference; one is gold put to the use of paving- 
stones, and the other is tin polished to ape a service of silver. 
MINE has nothing valuable about it; yet I shall have the merit of 
making it go as far as such poor stuff can go. HIS had first-rate 
qualities, and they are lost: rendered worse than unavailing. I 
have nothing to regret; he would have more than any but I are aware 
of. And the best of it is, Hareton is damnably fond of me! You'll 
own that I've outmatched Hindley there. If the dead villain could 
rise from his grave to abuse me for his offspring's wrongs, I 
should have the fun of seeing the said offspring fight him back 
again, indignant that he should dare to rail at the one friend he 
has in the world!'