1.....

`They are not mine,' said the amiable hostess, more repellingly than Heathcliff himself could have replied. `Ah, your favourites are among these?' I continued, turning to an obscure cushion full of something like cats. `A strange choice of favourites!' she observed scornfully. Unluckily, it was a heap of dead rabbits. I hemmed once more, and drew closer to the hearth, repeating my comment on the wildness of the evening. `You should not have come out,' she said, rising and reaching from the chimney-piece two of the painted canisters. Her position before was sheltered from the light; now, I had a distinct view of her whole figure and countenance. She was slender, and apparently scarcely past girlhood: an admirable form, and the most exquisite little face that I have ever had the pleasure of beholding; small features, very fair; flaxen ringlets, or rather golden, hanging loose on her delicate neck; and eyes, had they been agreeable in expression, they would have been irresistible: fortunately for my susceptible heart, the only sentiment they evinced hovered between scorn, and a kind of desperation, singularly unnatural to be detected there. The canisters were almost out of her reach; I made a motion to aid her; she turned upon me as a miser might turn if anyone attempted to assist him in counting his gold. `I don't want your help,' she snapped; `I can get them for myself.' `I beg your pardon!' I hastened to reply. `Were you asked to tea?' she demanded, tying an apron over her neat black frock, and standing with a spoonful of the leaf poised over the pot. `I shall be glad to have a cup,' I answered. `Were you asked?' she repeated. `No,' I said, half smiling. `You are the proper person to ask me.' She flung the tea back, spoon and all, and resumed her chair in a pet; her forehead corrugated, and her red under lip pushed out, like a child's ready to cry. Meanwhile, the young man had slung on to his person a decidedly shabby upper garment, and, erecting himself before the blaze, looked down on me from the corner of his eyes, for all the world as if there were some mortal feud unavenged between us. I began to doubt whether he were a servant or not: his dress and speech were both rude, entirely devoid of the superiority observable in Mr and Mrs Heathcliff; his thick brown curls were rough and uncultivated, his whiskers encroached bearishly over his cheeks, and his hands were embrowned like those of a common labourer: still his bearing was free, almost haughty, and he showed none of a domestic's assiduity in attending on the lady of the house. In the absence of clear proofs of his condition, I deemed it best to abstain from noticing his curious conduct; and, five minutes afterwards, the entrance of Heathcliff relieved me, in some measure, from my uncomfortable state. `You see, sir, I am come, according to promise!' I exclaimed, assuming the cheerful; `and I fear I shall be weatherbound for half an hour, if you can afford me shelter during that space.' `Half an hour?' he said, shaking the white flakes from his clothes; `I wonder you should select the thick of a snowstorm to ramble about in. Do you know that you run a risk of being lost in the marshes? People familiar with these moors often miss their road on such evenings; and I can tell you there is no chance of a change at present.' `Perhaps I can get a guide among your lads, and he might stay at the Grange till morning--could you spare me one?' `No, I could not.' `Oh, indeed! Well, then, I must trust to my own sagacity.' `Umph!' `Are you going to mak th' tea?' demanded he of the shabby coat, shifting his ferocious gaze from me to the young lady. `Is he to have any?' she asked, appealing to Heathcliff. `Get it ready, will you?' was the answer, uttered so savagely that I started. The tone in which the words were said revealed a genuine bad nature. I no longer felt inclined to call Heathcliff a capital fellow. When the preparations were finished, he invited me with--`Now, sir, bring forward your chair.' And we all, including the rustic youth, drew round the table: an austere silence prevailing while we discussed our meal. I thought, if I had caused the cloud, it was my duty to make an effort to dispel it. They could not every day sit so grim and taciturn; and it was impossible, however ill-tempered they might be, that the universal scowl they wore was their everyday countenance. `It is strange,' I began, in the interval of swallowing one cup of tea and receiving another--`it is strange how custom can mould our tastes and ideas: many could not imagine the existence of happiness in a life of such complete exile from the world as you spend, Mr Heathcliff; yet I'll venture to say, that, surrounded by your family, and with your amiable lady as the presiding genius over your home and heart--' `My amiable lady!' he interrupted, with an almost diabolical sneer on his face. `Where is she--my amiable lady?' `Mrs Heathcliff, your wife, I mean.' `Well, yes--Oh, you would intimate that her spirit has taken the post of ministering angel, and guards the fortunes of Wuthering Heights even when her body is gone. Is that it?' Perceiving myself in a blunder, I attempted to correct it. I might have seen there was too great a disparity between the ages of the parties to make it likely that they were man and wife. One was about forty: a period of mental vigour at which men seldom cherish the delusion of being married for love by girls: that dream is reserved for the solace of our declining years. The other did not look seventeen. Then it flashed upon me--`The clown at my elbow, who is drinking his tea out of a basin and eating his bread with unwashed hands, may be her husband: Heathcliff, junior, of course. Here is the consequence of being buried alive: she has thrown herself away upon that boor from sheer ignorance that better individuals existed! A sad pity--I must beware how I cause her to regret her choice.' The last reflection may seem conceited; it was not. My neighbour struck me as bordering on repulsive; I knew, through experience, that I was tolerably attractive. `Mrs Heathcliff is my daughter-in-law,' said Heathcliff, corroborating my surmise. He turned, as he spoke, a peculiar look in her direction: a look of hatred; unless he has a most perverse set of facial muscles that will not, like those of other people, interpret the language of his soul. `Ah, certainly--I see now: you are the favoured possessor of the beneficent fairy,' I remarked, turning to my neighbour. This was worse than before: the youth grew crimson, and clenched his fist, with every appearance of a meditated assault. But he seemed to recollect himself presently, and smothered the storm in a brutal curse, muttered on my behalf: which, however, I took care not to notice. `Unhappy in your conjectures, sir,' observed my host; `we neither of us have the privilege of owning your good fairy; her mate is dead. I said she was my daughter-in-law, therefore, she must have married my son.' `And this young man is--' `Not my son, assuredly.' Heathcliff smiled again, as if it were rather too bold a jest to attribute the paternity of that bear to him. `My name is Hareton Earnshaw,' growled the other; `and I'd counsel you to respect it!' `I've shown no disrespect,' was my reply, laughing internally at the dignity with which he announced himself. He fixed his eye on me longer than I cared to return the stare, for fear I might be tempted either to box his ears or render my hilarity audible. I began to feel unmistakably out of place in that pleasant family circle. The dismal spiritual atmosphere overcame, and more than neutralized, the glowing physical comforts round me; and I resolved to be cautious how I ventured under those rafters a third time. The business of eating being concluded, and no one uttering a word of sociable conversation, I approached a window to examine the weather. A sorrowful sight I saw: dark night coming down prematurely, and sky and hills mingled in one bitter whirl of wind and suffocating snow. `I don't think it possible for me to get home now without a guide,' I could not help exclaiming. `The roads will be buried already; and, if they were bare, I could scarcely distinguish a foot in advance. `Hareton, drive those dozen sheep into the barn porch. They'll be covered if left in the fold all night: and put a plank before them,' said Heathcliff. `How must I do?' I continued, with rising irritation. There was no reply to my question; and on looking round I saw only Joseph bringing in a pail of porridge for the dogs, and Mrs Heathcliff leaning over the fire, diverting herself with burning a bundle of matches which had fallen from the chimney-piece as she restored the tea canister to its place. The former, when he had deposited his burden, took a critical survey of the room, and in cracked tones, grated out: `Aw woonder hagh yah can faishion tuhcell phones n99i free shipping Rainbow LED Display Parking Sensor Silicon Case For P168+ and P168C,Black color available elegance dual sim review Q2-W29 Mono Bluetooth Headset with ISSC Chip jinpeng s5188 1GB Plastic Flash Memory Drive in Pantone's Color(FMD041) USB 2.0 Flash Memory Drive, 1GB, Innovative and Hamburger Shape a510 cellphone Samsung BP85ST Camcorder Replacement Battery - 7.4V - 850mAh Car rearview camera-Automatic IFP cheap my touch phone 598 Quad Band Dual Card With WIFI Analog TV JAVA Unlocked Cell Phone iphone n5000 640x480 usb 8gb memory hidden 10.4 inch LCD screen Digital Photo Frame Built-in Mini speaker 8GB Flash Memory Drive - Shining Stainless Steel Necklace(FMD064) Popular design 2GB Portable 2nd MP3 Shuffle built-in clip china electronics 4GB The Third Generation Mini MP3 Player with Clip 7.0 inch tft touch-screen car gps cheap mp3 mp4 players Samsung SLB1137 Camcorder Replacement Battery - 3.7V - 1035mAh 1GB Mini MP3 player/ Water Proof / Neck Strap mp3 Player 1GB MP3 Watch Support FM cheap china cell phones cheap mp3-mp4 players 1.8-inch TFT 2G 2ND MP4+FM Radio+Video Music five colors Available 19-inch Flip Down Car TFT-LCD Monitor DVD Player Nikon EL8 Camcorder Replacement Battery - 3.7V - 650mAh 2GB Jade Flash Memory Drive - Dog-bone Shaped(FMD058) Fashion Design Waist Pack Speaker -F1022A buy cell phones wholesale buy electronic from china buy china clone mobile buy china c5000 phone TV M1008 Tri Band Dual Card With Bluetooth Unlocked Cell Phone Watermelor USB Flash Drive 4GB-Food shaped USB Storage 1GB MP4 Players Acryl Photo Frame,2.5R 2.5 inch HDD Media Player / Recorder Voip phone with POE supported(V06MP) Car MP3 FM transmitter with Remote control X8+++ Quad Band Dual Card Dual Mode Mobile With Bluetooth FM KeyBoard Cover Skin case For ASUS epc 1000(10"), ASUS Eee PC 1000 (ML-1015f) PSTN voip phone with SIP protocol(V062) W715 Quad Band Dual Card With Analog TV Bluetooth Unlocked Cell Phone Laptop Notebook Cover Protective Skin Sticker (PCA0362) G2+ Tri Band With WIFI and Java Unlocked Cell Phone hiphone i9+ stand thear i' idleness un war, when all on 'em's goan aght! Bud yah're a nowt, and it's noa use talking --yah'll niver mend uh yer ill ways, bud goa raight tuh t' divil, like yer mother afore ye!' I imagined, for a moment, that this piece of eloquence was addressed to me; and, sufficiently enraged, stepped towards the aged rascal with an intention of kicking him out of the door. Mrs Heathcliff, however, checked me by her answer. `You scandalous old hypocrite!' she replied. `Are you not afraid of being carried away bodily, whenever you mention the devil's name? I warn you to refrain from provoking me, or I'll ask your abduction as a special favour. Stop! look here, Joseph,' she continued, taking a long, dark book from a shelf; `I'll show you how far I've progressed in the Black Art: I shall soon be competent to make a clear house of it. The red cow didn't die by chance; and your rheumatism can hardly be reckoned among providential visitations!' `Oh, wicked, wicked!' gasped the elder; `may the Lord deliver us from evil!' `No, reprobate! you are a castaway--be off, or I'll hurt you seriously! I'll have you all modelled in wax and clay; and the first who passes the limits I fix, shall--I'll not say what he shall be done to--but, you'll see! Go, I'm looking at you!' The little witch put a mock malignity into her beautiful eyes, and Joseph, trembling with sincere horror, hurried out praying and ejaculating `wicked' as he went. I thought her conduct must be prompted by a species of dreary fun; and, now that we were alone, I endeavoured to interest her in my distress. `Mrs Heathcliff,' I said earnestly, `you must excuse me for troubling you. I presume, because, with that face, I'm sure you cannot help being good-hearted. Do point out some landmarks by which I may know my way home: I have no more idea how to get there than you would have how to get to London!' `Take the road you came,' she answered, ensconcing herself in a chair, with a candle, and the long book open before her. `It is brief advice, but as sound as I can give.' `Then, if you hear of me being discovered dead in a bog or a pit full of snow, your conscience won't whisper that it is partly your fault?' `How so? I cannot escort you. They wouldn't let me go to the end of the garden wall.'