asked what was the matter, answered, she didn't know; but she felt
so afraid of dying! I imagined her as little likely to die as
myself. She was rather thin, but young, and fresh-complexioned,
and her eyes sparkled as bright as diamonds. I did remark, to be
sure, that mounting the stairs made her breathe very quick; that
the least sudden noise set her all in a quiver, and that she
coughed troublesomely sometimes: but I knew nothing of what these
symptoms portended, and had no impulse to sympathise with her. We
don't in general take to foreigners here, Mr. Lockwood, unless they
take to us first.

Young Earnshaw was altered considerably in the three years of his
absence. He had grown sparer, and lost his colour, and spoke and
dressed quite differently; and, on the very day of his return, he
told Joseph and me we must thenceforth quarter ourselves in the
back-kitchen, and leave the house for him. Indeed, he would have
carpeted and papered a small spare room for a parlour; but his wife
expressed such pleasure at the white floor and huge glowing
fireplace, at the pewter dishes and delf-case, and dog-kennel, and
the wide space there was to move about in where they usually sat,
that he thought it unnecessary to her comfort, and so dropped the
intention.

She expressed pleasure, too, at finding a sister among her new
acquaintance; and she prattled to Catherine, and kissed her, and
ran about with her, and gave her quantities of presents, at the
beginning. Her affection tired very soon, however, and when she
grew peevish, Hindley became tyrannical. A few words from her,
evincing a dislike to Heathcliff, were enough to rouse in him all
his old hatred of the boy. He drove him from their company to the